■ i,i ^ n / ^'i >i tt (1 




CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 




SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, CAMBRID(iE. 



_]r^ ..•.I i^^J^u-- 



Cl)c ^olQicrs' iHotTument in CambviDge. 



PROCEEDINGS 



IN RELATION TO THE 



BUILDING AND DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT 
ERECTED IN THE YEARS 1869-70, 



CITY GOVERNMENT OE CAMBRIDGE, MASS., 

IN HONOR OF 

THOSE OF HER SOLDIERS AND SAILORS WHO DIED IN DEFENCE 

OF THE UNION OF THE STATES, IN THE 

WAR OF THE REBELLION. 




CAMBRIDGE : 

PKESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON. 
1870. 






PrcpareU antJ PublisIjctJ hp ®rticr of t|)e Cttp Council. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. Committee of the City Council on the jNIoxumext 

FOR 1869 7 

II. Committee or the City Council on the Monument 

FOR 1870 8 

III. Names of Designers, Artists, and Others engaged in 

ITS Erection 9 

IV. Introductory Note 11 

V. Description of the Monument 17 

Architect's Description 19 

Names on the Tablets 23 

Note, in relation to the Statue, by the Artists .... 31 

VI. Laying of the Corner-Stone 33 

Ode by R. Torrey, Jr., G. A. R 36 

Address by Hon. C. H. Saunders, Mayor 37 

Contents of the Box placed in the Corner-stone .... 44 

VII. The Dedication 51 

The Procession 54 

Presentation Address of Alderman John S. March . . 56 

Address of Acceptance by Hon. II. R. Harding, Mayor . 04 

Oration by the Rev. Alexander McKenzie 70 



({Committee on t!jc ^oltiirrs* flonumcnt, 
1869. 



Of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. 

His Honor CHARLES H. SAUNDEES, Mayor. 

CHARLES F. WALCOTT. | JEREMIAH W. COVENEY. 
JOHN S. MARCH. | JAMES H. SPARROW. 



Of the ChinmoH Council. 

HENRY W. MUZZEY, President. 

SAMUEL P. ADAMS. } S. K. WILLIAMS, Jr. 

GUSTAVUS A. SMART. AL\ ARO BLODGETT. 

B. J. McCORMIC. i NOAH M. COFRAN. 

JAMES RICHARDSON. 



Committee on tlje ^oltiiers' ilomimcnt, 
1870. 



Of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. 

His Honor HAMLIN E. HARDING, Mayor. 

JAMES H. SPARROW. i HORATIO G. PARKER. 

JOHN S. MARCH. JEREMIAH W. COVENEY. 



Of the Common Council. 



JOSEPH H. CONVERSE, PresideiU. 



SAMUEL P. ADAMS. 
GUSTAVUS A. SMART. 
JAMES RICHARDSON. 



S. K. WILLIAMS, Jr. 
ISAAC BRADFORD. 
ROBERT L. SAWIN. 



JAMES H. HALL. 



Designcis of the Monument and Artists of the Sfaii/e. 
CYRUS AND DARIUS COBB, 

OF CAMBRIDGE. 



A7'chi'tect. 
THOMAS W. SILLOWAY, A.M. 



OF BOSTON. 



Contractors for the Stone and Masonry. 

McDonald and mann, 



)F cambhidop:. 



Manufacturers of the Tablets. 
THE METALLIC COMPRESSION COMPANY% 

OF SOMERVILLE. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



rpHIS publication has been prepared under the authority 
-*- of the City Council, in order that the proceedings in 
regard to the JNIonument may be preserved in a more regular 
and permanent form than the disconnected and detached 
accounts that have been furnished from time to time by the 
newspapers of the day. 

Shortly after the completion and dedication of the Monu- 
ment, the City Council directed that the Committee who 
had been intrusted with that work should perform this also ; 
and the Committee, in obedience to the order, assigned the 
duty to the writer of this note, who was one of their number. 
He has endeavored, in collecting and arranging the various 
materials, to present all in a manner that he trusts may meet 
the approval of those by whose authority he has acted ; and 
that the citizens will be gratified to have a complete history 
of their Monument presented in a style of mechanical exe- 
cution that shall entitle it to a place among their literary 
collections. 

At the installation of the City Government in the year 
1869, the Mayor, in his Inaugural Address, urged upon the 
attention of the members the patriotic duty of erecting a 
suitable memorial in honor of those sons of Cambridge who 
had perished in the war recently brought to a close. The 
sentiments of the Mayor met with a ready response in the 



12 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

City Council, and on the 13th of January the following- 
Order was adopted unanimously by the Common Council ; 
and in the week following by the Board of Aldermen, with- 
out dissent : 

" Ordered^ That a Joint Special Committee, to consist of the 
President and five members of the Common Council, with such as 
the Aldermen may join, be appointed to consider and report upon 
the subject of a ' Soldiers' Monument,' with authority to procure 
plans and estimates ; and that they be requested to report upon 
some suitable location for the same at as early a date as possible." 

In pursuance of the authority conferred by this Order, the 
Committee resolved that a Monument should be erected to 
perpetuate the memory of the fallen soldiers of Cambridge, 
and that the large Common in Ward One was a proper 
location. Plans and estimates of expense wxre solicited by 
public advertisement ; in response to which, thirty-four plans 
were presented from twenty-two artists, ranging in cost from 
ten to sixty thousand dollars. As the limit had been fixed 
by the City Council at twenty-five thousand dollars, the 
Committee declined all that exceeded that amount, without 
particular examination of their merits. After a careful and 
rigid scrutiny of the remainder, — aided by the counsel of 
architects of established reputation, — it was decided that the 
design offered by the Messrs. Cyrus and Darius Cobb, 
of Cambridge, should be recommended for adoption by the 
government. Accordingly a report was submitted in the 
month of April, stating, in substance, the conclusions to 
which the Committee had arrived in regard to the design 
and location. This report was unanimously adopted, and an 
Order passed directing the Committee to proceed with the 
work.i 



1 Tliis Order may be found at length in the account of the ceremonies at 
the laying of the corner-stone ; being a portion of the brief history of Cam- 
bridge deposited, with other documents, in the stone, and numbered 3 in the 
list of contents of the box. 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 13 

As the Committee were about to close the contracts for 
the building of the structure, an obstacle was presented in 
the form of a petition to the Supreme Judicial Court of the 
Commonwealth, praying that the city be enjoined from 
using the Common in Ward One as a site for the INIonu- 
ment, for the reason that such use would work a forfeiture 
of the city's title to the land. The application was heard 
and decided upon by the Court, — Mr. Justice Morton, — 
then in session in Cambridge. The decision affirmed the 
right of the city to use the land for the purpose con- 
templated. 

As the delay thus occasioned was the cause of much 
public comment, it is referred to here for the double pur- 
pose of explaining the real cause ; and of giving a statement 
of the city's connection with, and ownership of, the four 
commons, so called, in Old Cambridge, lying in front of the 
college ; not an uninteresting feature in the history of our 
city. 

Cambridge Common was granted to the town by the 
"Proprietors of Common and Undivided lands in Cam- 
bridge" — a private company — on the 20th of November, 
1769, by the following vote : 

" Voted, That all the common lanils, belonging to the proprie- 
tors, fronting the college (commouly called the town commons), 
not heretofore granted or allotted to any particular person, be, and 
the same is hereby granted to the Town of Cambridge, to be used 
as a training field, to lie undivided, and to remain for that use for- 
ever ; provided, nevertheless, that if the said town should dispose 
of, grant, or appropriate the same or any part thereof, at any time 
hereafter, to or for any other use than that before mentioned, 
then and in such case the whole of the premises hereby granted 
to the said town shall revert to the proprietors granting the same, 
and the present grant shall be deemed null and void, to all intents 
and purposes, as if the same had never been made." 

The point raised and presented to the Court was, that the 



14 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

erection of a massive edifice, like the proposed Monument, 
was inconsistent with the use of the Common as a training 
field, and therefore in direct violation of the intent of the 
grantors. The Court held that such an appropriation of the 
land did not interfere with its use as a training field ; on 
the contrary, the proposed Monument was a most fitting 
ornament for a place designed to be used for military pur- 
poses ; that, considering the area of the Common, and the 
dimensions, location, design, and character of the structure, 
it is to be regarded as an incident or appurtenance of a 
training field ; and therefore the city might lawfully erect it, 
without incurring a forfeiture of the estate. For brevity's 
sake, all statement of the principles and course of reasoning, 
which led the Court to its conclusions, is omitted, the sub- 
stance only being given. There can be no doubt that this 
decision of Judge Morton will be regarded as a final settle- 
ment of the question as to what the city may, or may not, 
do with the Common. 

In selecting a site for the Monument, the Committee 
endeavored to fix upon a position the most conspicuous that 
the Common could furnish. It was accordingly placed in the 
direct line of vision, as approached from North Avenue, 
Cambridge Street, Harvard Square, and the A]3pian Way, 
on the south-east section of the enclosure. The Committee 
believe that this selection meets the public approval. 

The corner-stone was laid on Thursday, June 17, 1869, 
and the Monument dedicated on Wednesday, July 13, 1870. 
Impressive and interesting services were held on both occa- 
sions, which are given in full detail in the following pages. 
At the close of the ceremonies on the day of dedication, the 
Governor and staff, with many military and naval officers, 
surviving soldiers of Cambridge, widows and orphans of 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 15 

deceased soldiers, posts of the Grand Army, and large num- 
bers of citizens and ladies, were entertained by the City 
Government at the State Arsenal, the use of which had 
been kindly granted by his Excellency the Governor. The 
utmost order and regularity pervaded the proceedings of the 
day, and the occasion will long be pleasantly remembered 
by the thousands that participated. 

J. S. M. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT, 

By THOMAS W. SILLOWAY, A.M., 



ARCHITECT. 



THE TABLETS. 



STATEMENT BY THE ARTISTS. 



DESCRIPTION. 



^I^HE Monument rests on a platform twenty-five feet 
square, surrounded by two steps, making an aggregate 
of thirty feet at the extreme base, and giving a rise of two 
feet three inches from the grading. At the centre of the 
platform stands the pedestal of the Monument proper, which 
is also square in plan, having thirteen feet six inches as a 
length of the sides. It is surmounted by a very substantial 
cornice, elevated eight feet eight inches from the platform, 
and having a diameter of fourteen feet five inches, which is 
the extreme measure of the Monument. Above the pedestal 
cornice rises a heavy, plain plinth, and upon this rests the 
floor of the arcade, which is eleven feet five inches square, 
and richly moulded on the outer edge. The floor is com- 
posed of but two stones, having an aggregate weight of 
something over eight tons. At the four corners of this floor 
stand the plinths of the pilasters and imposts. The former 
are finished with a moulded base, and contain five flutes on 
each of the two sides, and two on each of the otliers, and 
crowned with a composite capital. The diameter above the 
base is eighteen inches, and the aggregate height of base, 
shaft, and capital is eleven feet seven inches. The imposts 
are nine and a half inches projection from the pilasters, with 
a depth of thirteen inches. They are finished with a richly 
moulded capital, from which spring, on each of the four sides, 



20 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

elliptical arches, decorated with elaborate archivolt mould- 
ings, key-stones, &c. The width of openings is five feet 
eleven inches, with a height of ten feet seven inches to the 
crown of the arch. The pilasters and imposts combined are 
cut out of single stones, giving great solidity and strength 
to the structure. The archivolt stones are also entire, 
extending from pilaster to pilaster ; and all this work, as 
well as all similar parts of the iNIonument, are strongly con- 
fined together with copper dowels and clamps let into the 
stone. The entire surface of the inside of the alcove is 
finely hammered, with internal cornice moulding, grooved 
panel lines in the spandrels, key-stones, &c. The ceiling- 
is of a single stone, ten feet four inches square, exclusive of 
the moulding on the outer edge, and weighs something over 
ten tons. It forms the architrave of the entablature, and 
upon it rests the frieze ; and surmounting all are four pedi- 
ments, making the cornice, &c. The entablature has a 
height of two feet eight inches, and the pediments two feet 
seven inches, giving an aggregate of twenty-seven feet nine 
inches from the top of same down to platform. The pedi- 
ments are composed of but four stones, with valleys cut at 
the corners of roofs ; and each stone weighs nearly five tons. 
The frieze of the entablature is decorated with stars, as are 
also the- key-stones. The latter exhibit rays cut in the stone 
back of the stars, and the bed mould of cornice is cut in 
continued small archwork. The style of mouldings on the 
monument throughout is the Roman, and in all instances 
it has been strictly adhered to and fully executed. Imme- 
diately above the pediments rises the base of the first section 
of the statue pedestal. This is composed of a series of 
plinths and surmounting moulded bases, with a panelled die, 
and no cornice but a receding bevel. In Y>\an, this section is 
an irregular octagon, having four principal and four subor- 
dinate sides. In the former are bass-reliefs in granite, 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 21 

representing- the four arms of the service; viz., Navy, Cav- 
ahy, Artillery, and Infantry. The extreme diameter of this 
section at the base is eigiit feet one inch, and at tlic die of 
pedestal six feet eight inches, with an altitude of six feet ten 
inches from the apex of pediments, llcsting- on this section 
and receding from it is another of corresponding plan ; the 
transition being made by inverted consoles, and base mould- 
ings cut in on the four principal sides between. The 
diameter of this section, exclusive of the consoles, is five feet 
four inches, and the height is six feet two inches, including 
a finely moulded projecting cornice, which is also in one stone 
and crowning all. Above the consoles are small panels ; and 
in the four principal sides between are square panels, enriched 
by bass-reliefs cut in stone, representing respectively the coats- 
of-arms of the City of Cambridge, State of Massachusetts, 
the United States, and of the Grand Army of the Republic. 
On the large cornice-stone named rests the ornamental 
moulded base or sub-plinth of the statue. This is in general 
outline like the section below, but at the top moi'e nearly 
approaching a perfect octagon. The stone is one foot eight 
inches high, making an extreme height of forty-four feet 
eight inches from the grading, or forty-eight feet from the 
average grade about the Monument, Including a rise of three 
feet four inches as nreund work about the steps. The statue 
from the base stone is eleven feet high, making in all fifty- 
five feet eio'ht inches as the aggregate height of the Monument 
and steps. 

On the main platform, at the four angles and radiating 
diagonally from them, are the four tablet buttresses. These 
are six feet ten inches in height. They project six feet five 
inches at the die, from the main pedestal, and are two feet 
eight inches thick. In each end are moulded panels, and in 
each of the eight sides are sunken panels, in which are the 
bronze memorial tablets. In the die of the main pedestal. 



22 CAMBEIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMOEIAL. 

between the buttresses, are other sunken panels. That on 
the front side is occupied by the dedicatory statement, and 
the other three are designed for occupation at a future day 
by bass-rehef tablets of bronze, representing such events in 
the late war as may be deemed most expedient or appro- 
priate. A heavy moulded base projects from the buttresses, 
and below this a plinth, beneath which is a bevelled base 
and plinth, down to the platform, and the whole of these 
are continued around the entire work and across under the 
panels in the main pedestal. 

The boldness of all moulded parts, and distinctness of 
outline to each one throughout the entire structure, is one 
of the marked excellences of the composition. The great 
solidity and breadth of base is in good effective subordination ; 
and this result is produced by a coi'rect relative proportion 
of the parts ; and while the lower sections of the structure 
are of unusual irregularity of outline, no unpleasant effect is 
produced by the transition from this to the somewhat severe 
regularity of the alcove section and work above it. But per- 
haps the most marked success of the design reposes in the 
fact of accommodating the sections over the pediments to the 
work below. By using the irregular octagon we have a 
gi'adual transition from the absolute square section to the 
statue itself, so that no unpleasing decrease of diameter is 
observable, whether viewed directly in front of one of the 
facades, or diagonally. 

It may be named in closing, that the foundations are laid 
in the most thorough manner of large stones in cement mor- 
tar, extending out beyond even the steps themselves, and 
filled in with solid masonry for a depth of eight feet below 
the steps, and that every part of the structure has been built 
with great care, and no expense or attention has been 
spared in efforts to produce a work that will endure for 
ages. 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 23 



THE TABLETS. 

These are nine in number. That containing the dedica- 
tory inscription is placed upon the die forming the front of 
the main pedestal, and is in these words : 

The Soldiers and Sailors of Cambridge, whose names 
are here inscribed, died in the service of their 

COUNTRY, IN THE WaR FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF THE 

Union. 
to perpetuate the memory op their valor and patriotism, 
THIS Monument is erected by the City, a.d. 1869-70. 

The four buttresses contain two tablets each, upon which 
are inscribed the names of the soldiers and sailors, in the 
following order : 

first STablet. 

Brig.-General Charles Rcssell Lowell. 

First Massachusetls Infantry Volunteers. 

2d Lt. Wm. H. B. Smith. Horace O. Blake. Henry Penraore. 

Sergt. G. W. Harris. Aurelius Gray. "Wm. H. Smart. 

Corp. Thomas Lawson. Wm. H. Lattimer. Wm. Wilson. 

Christopher Morris. 

Second ]\[assachuselts Infantry Volunteers. 

Capt. Richard Gary. 1st Lt. Gerald Fitzgerald. 

Capt. Thomas R. Robeson. Peter Coulan. 

Sixth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 
Benj. F. Lancton. 

Ninth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 

1st Lt. John H. Rafferty. Corp. Richard Condon. Michael Conway. 

Sergt. George Grier. Wm. Adams. Thomas Marin. 

Bernard Conway. 

Eleventh Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 

Sergt. J. L. Brown. Ferdinand Haberer. James H. Pierce, Jr. 

John P. Brown. A. H. Hamilton. Augustus R. Pope. 

Joseph D. Bertsch. John F. Hawkes. Wm. Schmidt. 

George W. Bullock. Edward T. Hixon. Humphrey Sullivan. 

John E. Butler. John C. Murphy. 



24 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

Thirteenth Massachusetts Infantiij Volunteers. 
Samuel S. Gould. John O. Keefe. George F. Wakefield. 

Fifteenth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 
Francis L. Lander. Wm. Robins. 



SecontJ (Enblct. 

Sixteenth ]\[assachusetts Lifantrij Volunteers. 

Capt. A J. Dallas. Jeremiah Corkery. John Hughes, 2d. 

2d Lt. Hiram Rowe. Joseph Corrigan. Paul Kennedy. 

Sergt. Tlieo. E. Waters. Samuel A. Cutting. Timothy Kelleher. 

Sergt. John P. Turner. Thomas Fitzgerald. Edward Lennon. 

Corp. Joseph McEvoy. Herman Flint. John Lynch. 

Corp. Jeremiali Murphy. Wm. F. Freeman. Dennis Meagher. 

Corp. Tliomas Tabor. Charles W. Goodwin. George Nichols. 

Jeremiah Cokely. David G. Hatch. Frederick S. Richards. 
Dennis Horrigan. 

Seventeenth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 
Capt. Levi P. Thompson. Charles Murphy. 

Eighteenth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 

2d Lt. Pardon Almy, Jr. Sergt. George E. Henshaw. Corp. John E. Howe. 
2d Lt. James B. Hancock. Sergt. Horace M. Hosmer. George W. Paull. 

Nineteenth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 

2d Lt. Wm. H. Tibbetts. Thomas F. Costello. Walter S. Penniman. 

Sergt. Nathaniel Prentiss. George W. Lucy. Lewis Westacott. 

Sergt. Charles B. Brown. Alexander Morin. Richard Westacott. 

Sergt. Oliver Hapgood. George E. Morse. George R. White. 

Joseph Baldwin. Thomas Murphy. Levi Woofindale. 

Twentieth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 

Major Henry L. Patten. Sergt. George F. Cate. Walter H. Stedson. 

1st Lt. James J. Lowell. Sergt. Andrew A. Langley. George W. Waters. 
2d Lt. Wm. L. Putnam. Francis W. Eaton. 

Twenty-first Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 
Patrick Fay. 



CAMBllIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 



'25 



Twentij-second MasmchuseUs InfaHtrij Volunteers. 



Capt. Joseph A. Baxter. Corp. Alex. T. Barri. 

Capt. Robert T. Bourne. George W. Bentley. 

Sorgt. Daniel F. Brown. Samuel Benjamin. 

Scrgt. Wm. Matthews. Archibald McCaffrey. 



Patrick Donavan. 
Benjamin F. Gunnison. 
Elias Manning. 



Twenty-third Massachusetts Iiifanfnj Volunteers. 
Ferdinand Mathews. 



Twcnt//-fourth Massachusetts Infantrij Volunteers. 



Corp. Joseph H. Wyman. 
Isaac Fenton. 



John Irwin. 
Wm. Thompson. 
Frank Todd. 



James Travis. 
George T. Wood. 



Twenty-sixth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteer.^. 
1st Lt. James Monroe. Corp. Owen Duffy. Wm. Z. Morey. 

Tivenly-eiijhth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 



Sergt. Oliver L. Hodgdon. 
Sergt. Lauren F. Langley. 
Sergt. John Henry Purcell. 
Corp. John Cooley. 
Corp. John Hogan. 
Wm. C. Carnes. 
John Caswell. 
Daniel Conway. 
Michael Daly. 



Bernard Flanigan. 
Henry Gould. 
Peter Hanlon. 
Michael Hoar. 
Peter Kelly. 
Thomas Kelsey. 
Timothy Leary. 
Bernard Madden. 
John Manning. 
John Marshall. 



James McNall. 
Wm. Mitchell. 
John Murphy. 
Wm. Plant. 
Edward B. Thomas. 
David Tyter. 
Ebenezer Whiting. 
Robert Wiseman. 
Jolin Gibbons. 



Jpouttfj JITablet. 

Twenty-ninth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 
1st Lt. Ezra Ripley. Sergt. Edward M. Hastings. 



Thirtieth 3Iassachuselts Infantry Volunteers. 



Robert L. Dale. 
Daniel Hickey. 
Joseph Hoey. 



David Johns-ton. 
Dennis O'Brien. 
William Phipps. 

i 



Francis E. Stevens. 
George G. Tliwing. 



26 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 



Thirtij-Jirst Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 
Patrick McDermott. Michael McQuillan. 

Thirtij-second Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 

Corp. David K. Munroe. 

Thirty-third Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 

2d Lt. Joseph P. Burrage. 

Thirty-eifdh Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 



Sergt. Maj. Walter W. 

Nourse. 
Sergt. J. Frank Angell. 
Sergt. Martin G. Child. 
Sergt. Wm. P. Iladley. 
Sergt. Curtis Ilobbs. 
Sergt. Charles A. Howard. 
Corp. Thomas Cassidy. 
Corp. W. L. Champney. 
Corp. Hezekiah O. Gale. 
Corp. Levi Langley. 



Corp. Charles E. Neale. 
Corp. Augustus A. Thurs- 
ton. 
George N. Allen. 
George R. Blake. 
George L. Burton. 
John D. Burtwell. 
Patrick Callalian. 
Charles A. Carpenter. 
Herman J. Clark. 
John Conner. 



IMichael T. Croning. 
John II. Dame. 
Charles T. Denton. 
John A. Dodge. 
Marcus Downing. 
John Ducy. 
James English. 
James M. Fairfield. 
James J. Gibson. 
Tliomas Gibson. 
Patrick J. GiU. 



John M. Gilcreas. 
James Golden. 
Wm. Harlow. 
John Harney. 
Joseph H. Hughes. 
Alfred Jennings. 
Wm. II. Lunt. 
Francis McQuade. 
John Madden. 



Thirty-eifdh Reyiment (continued). 



Thomas Maroney. 
Joseph A. Morris. 
Michael Murphy. 
Dennis B. Nasli. 
Martin O'Brien. 
Cliarles Parker. 
John Powers. 
Edwin C. Proctor. 
John H. Ready. 
Thomas H. Roper. 



Orrin Seavey. 
David Shattels. 
Wm. L. Stevens. 
Francis C. Swift. 
John II. Talbot. 
George T. Tucker. 
John II. Tucker. 
Charles White. 
Dennis White. 



Thirty-ninth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 
Col. P. Stearns Davis. Thomas J. Short. 

Forty-second Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 
Tliomas J. Clements. 



CAMBEIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 27 

Forty-third Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 
Corp. Wm. F. Sparrow. Howard J. Ford. 

Forty-fourth ifassachuseits Infantry Volunteers. 

Sergt. A. Stacy Courtis. Albert L. Butler. 

Walter S. Bradbiu-y. Francis C. Hopkinson. 

Forty-ffth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 

Corp. Wm. J. Rand. Wm. L. Parker. 

Edwin R. Clark. Wm. B. Price. 

Forty-seventh Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 

1st Lt. Jared Shepard. Charles D. Harlow. 

Bernard Haley. Patrick O'Niel. 



St'itlj ([Tablet. 

Fifty-fifih Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 
2d Lt. Leonard C. Alden. 

Fify -sixth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 

Brev. Maj. Charles James Mills. Lucien Andrews. Dennis McMahon. 

Ser-Tt Edwin F. Richardson. William A. Dillingham. Bernard MuUen. 
Corp. Frederick Ruliliug. Patrick Howard. Leonard Volk. 

Fifty-eighth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 
Franklin J. Cremin. 

Fifty-ninth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 
Sergt. James McCalvey. • Corp. Frank Snow. Randolph Ruther. 

Corp. John Scanlan. Sidney Allen. Thomas Sulhvan. 

Philo G. Lawton. 

Sixty-first Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. 

Edwin J. Bigelow. William O'Brien. 

Alvah Montgomery. James H. Rowe. 

Twenty-first Company Unattached Massachusetts Infantry. 
John Crockett. 



28 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

Eleventh Vet. Res. Corps. 
John Toomey. 

First Company/ Sharpshooters. 
Sergt. Anselm C. Hammond. 

First Massachisetts Cavalry Volunteers. 

Sergt. Charles C. Schwartz. Frank M. Ahny. Wm. Tingey. 

Corp. Alphonso D. Titus. Charles R. Gay. Henry C. Waters. 

Corp. Henry Walker. John W. Macconnell. Wm. II. Wyeth. 

Second Massachusetts Cavalry Volunteers. 

Joseph Donovan. Thomas Palmer. 

Wm. R. Jackson. Augustine Sorg. 

Thomas Yuill. 

Third Massachusetts Cavalry Volunteers. 

Charles M. Bridges. William Laws. 

Charles D. Johnson. Edward P. White. 



Sc&£nt!) Cablet. 

Fomth Massachusetts Cavalry Volunteers. 
George A. Jewett. George P. Welch. 

Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry Volunteers. 

Sergt. Wm. H. Keene. Austm Jefferson. 

Charles C. Fatal. Robert Thornton. 

First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. 

2d Lt. Howard Carroll. Augustus Cunnmgham. Daniel F. Smith. 

Timothy Condlin. Michael McVey. Charles F. York. 

John O'Conner. 

Second Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. 
Corp. John Hamilton. John Dunn. Charles F. Edwards. 

Third Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. 
Thomas Long. 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 29 

First MassaclMsetts Battery. 
Thomas Neville. 

Second Massachusetts Battery. 
John M. S. Lernard. 

Third Massachusetts Battery. 
Herbert L. Emerson. John H. Maguire. James B. Robinson. 

Sixth Massachusetts Battery. 
John O'Hare. 

Ninth Massachusetts Battery. 
Sergt. John L. Fenton. Corp. Lucian J. Sanderson. 

Tenth Massachusetts Battery. 
Henry L. Ewell. 

Eleventh Massachusetts Battery. 
Milo H. Daily. George W. Hearsey. 

TweJjlh Massachusetts Battery. 
Alois Kolb. 

Thirteenth Massachusetts Battery. 
Sergt. Charles Bisbee. 

Fifteenth Massachusetts Battery. 
H. Gray Chipman. 

Eleventh U. S. Infantry. 
Capt. Thomas 0. Barri. Benjamin F. Garland. Thomas F. Ryan. 

Seventeenth U. S. Infantry. 
1st Lt. Frank E. Stimson. 



30 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIxVL. 



First U. S. Artillerij. 
Cluarles A.- Carter. James D. Paul. 



Tenth U. S. Colored Heavy Artillerij. 
1st Lt. W. Carey Rice. 

Thirty-Jirst Maine Infantry Volunteers. 
1st Lt. Wm. Bradford Allyn. 

Second N. H. Infantry Volunteers. 
George H. Stearns. 

Sixth N. n. Infantry Volunteers. 
Sephen Moore. 

Fortieth N. Y. Infantry Volunteers. 
James Angling. 

Seventyfourth N. Y. Infantry Volunteers. 



2d Lt. Rudolph N. Anderson. 
Sergt. Wra. H. Babcock. 
Corp. Erastus R. BuUard. 
George Cubery. 
Charles W. Emery. 



George F. Falls. 
Thomas Gaffiiey. 
Francis Graham. 
Wiiifleld S. Gurney. 
Joseph Hodges, Jr. 
Wm. Johnson. 



John McCarthy. 
Albert McKown. 
Edwin R. Pearson. 
Pliilip J. Quinn. 
Thomas Wilson. 



Asst. Sm-geon WiUiam Longshaw, Jr., U.S. Steam Frigate Minnesota. 

Asst. Surgeon Henry Sylvanus Plympton, U.S.N. 

Asst. Engineer John M. Whittemore, U.S. Steam Sloop Mohican. 

Gunner Jacob Amee, U.S. Ship Mercedita. 

Charles F. Brown, U.S.N. 

George Bacon, U.S.N. 



THE STATUE ON THE SOLDIERS' MONUMENT. 



The Messrs. Cobb published the explanation that follows 
in the Cambridge newspapers of August 27, 1870. It is 
inserted here as an appropriate accompaniment of the archi- 
tect's description of the Monument. Although supplement- 
ary to that, it may be regarded, of itself, as a description 
of one of the most important and beautiful features of the 
structure. 

A CARD. 

Having been requested by several citizens to explain, through 
the Cambridge journals, our conception as embodied in the statue 
on the Soldiers' Monument, we cheerfully do so, although we had 
intended that the statue should, in the course of time, explain 

itself. 

Our aim was to produce a statue which should be typical of the 
citizen soldier, who left his home to do battle for the Union, real- 
izing the solemnity of the conflict in which he was to engage. 
He has met the fortunes of war with a spirit actuated by one 
thought, — the salvation of his country. Victory has not excited 
him to undue exultation, nor has defeat for a moment served to 
depress him. He has witnessed the slaughter of the foe with pity, 
and yet has been a terrible antagonist. While unmindful of his 
own sufferings, he has ever been deeply moved by the sufferings of 
his comrades. He has shrunk from no carnage, nor has he plunged 
into danger regardless of the object to be attained. The Rebellion 
suppressed, he stands in the uniform, not of the North, but of the 
Union he has helped to preserve, meditating on the fearful strife 



32 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

through which he has passed, — : the awful haptism by which his 
country has been purified, — and with a spirit ready to march 
again to the front to fight for Liberty at a moment's warning. And 
then thoughts of his fallen comrades sweep through his mind, and 
with a tighter clasp of the gun on which he rests, and which has 
been his inseparable companion during those years of bloodshed, 
he uncovers his head, and with folded arms contemplates, with a 
mingling of solemnity, sternness, and tender memory, the scenes 
which these thoughts conjure before his mental eye. 

Having embodied these ideas in our small model, we tested 
them satisfactorily by the best military experience and critical 
ability. The soldier is not at " parade rest," as many unac- 
quainted with military tactics have supposed. He is at ease, tak- 
ing such position as suits him best ; and the beholder is at liberty 
to place him where his fancies may dictate. Regarding the ques- 
tion in an artistic point of view, it is only necessary to remark, 
that were the cap — now held in the left hand — placed on the 
head, the visor would cast a shadow in a manner to render the 
face comparatively expressionless, as seen from the ground. 

With respect to the arcade, we would state that this was de- 
signed by us to serve somewhat as a temple ; and in it we 
originally drew a sitting statue of the Genius of America, as rep- 
resenting that which ere long will again be universally loved and 
honored, North and South. It represents that for which those 
soldiers died to whose memory the Monument has been erected. 
We would, however, recommend a few years' delay in the placing 
of what must necessarily remain the central idea of the entire 
memorial. It seems to us that it would be well to wait till the 
harmony of North and South being thoroughly restored, an event 
so grateful to all could be then commemorated by appropriate 
sculpture. 

CYRUS & DARIUS COBB. 



CEREMONIES 



LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE, 



June 17, 1869. 



LAYING OF THE COENER-STONE. 



A T an early hour in tlie day appointed for tlie ceremonies, 
■^^ a procession was formed in Harvard Square, in the 
following order, and marched to the Common : 

Chief Marshal, 

Gen. S. E. Chamberlain. 

Cambridge Brass Band. 

Grand Army Battahon, consisting of 

Post 30 — Wm. H. Smart Encampment, 150 men, 

W. H. Carey, Commander. 
Post 56 — Charles Beck Encampment, 100 men, 

Lemuel Pope, Commander. 

Post 57 — P. Stearns Davis Encampment, 75 men, 

E.. L. Sawin, Commander. 

His Honor the Mayor, President of the Common Council, and 

Chaplain of the Day, 

Members of the City Government. 

Ex-Mayors, Representatives to the General Court, Heads of Departments, 

and citizens generally. 

Upon reaching the Common, the procession passed 
directly around the foundation of the Monument, when a 
halt was made, and position taken by the City Government 
upon the top of the foundation wall. 

After Prayer, by the Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins, D.D., 
the following Ode, written for the occasion by Comrade 



36 CAMBR DGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

Robert Torrey, Jr., of Post 30, was sung by all present, 
to the tune of " America : " 

Hushed are war's rude alarms ; 
The clang of clashing arms 

Is heard no more. 
No more tlie cannon's breath 
Proclaims tlie feast of Death : 
Peace twines her olive wreath 

From shore to shore ! 

But many a gallant heart 
That nobly bore its part, 

Our land to save, 
Where gleamed the sabre-stroke 
Athwart the battle-smoke, 
Where armies charged and broke, 

Sleeps in the grave. 

To-day we meet to rear. 
To fallen comrades, dear. 

The sculptured stone ! 
To keep each honored name. 
Bright on the rolls of Fame, 
And proudly to proclaim 

What they have won ! 

And stone on stone shall rise, 
Till, tow'ring toward the skies. 

In beauty grand. 
The column's graceful form, 
While loyal hearts beat warm. 
In sunshine and in storm, 

For aye shall stand ! 

Oh, keep their raem'ry green. 
While morning's golden sheen 

Shall gild its head ! 
While noonday's glowing light 
Crowns it with halo bright. 
And o'er it shadowy night 

Its dews shall shed ! 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. -37 

Lord! let thy mighty hand 
Protect and guard our land, 

We now implore. 
Grant all oppressed release, 
Bid war and tumult cease, 
And bless our land with peace 

For evermore ! 

The Chief Marshal, Gen. Chamberlain, now mtroduced 
the Mayor to the assembly, who made the address which is 
here oiven : 



ADDRESS 

BY THE HON. CHARLES H. SAUNDERS, MAYOR. 

Fellow Citizens : 

On this spot, famed in our Revolutionary history, 
where the illustrious Washington first assumed com- 
mand of the xlmerican Army, we meet to-day to 
commence our work, and to lay the corner-stone ot 
this structure, which shall commemorate in the great 
future the real actors of the great struggle from 
which we have so recently emerged ; and which shall 
bear their names, and transmit their memories to gen- 
erations yet unborn, and shall manifest somewhat the 
sacrifices made by them for the free institutions which 
we enjoy. We cannot, I think, yet realize the mag- 
nitude, or too highly appreciate the momentous con- 
sequences, of this contest, or the great principles of 
self-government involved ; but we can offer our thanks 
to that kind and overruling Providence (who seeth 
the end from the beginning), that our nation was 



38 CAMBEIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMOEIAL. 

carried safely through this great peril. No words of 
mine at this time can fitly eulogize the deeds of those 
who, with no hope of gain to themselves, but with an 
hitense love of country, became a willing sacrifice and 
gave up their lives, choosing death rather than that 
this government of our fathers should be destroyed. 
Standing in this place, I can only acknowledge the 
debt as one impossible for us to repay. They have 
won a title to the nation's highest glory. The value 
of their deeds, and the result brought about by their 
successful heroism, will be felt by the whole civilized 
world, while it has shaped the whole fabric that under- 
lies our system of government. 

It is fit then that we should cherish their memories, 
and preserve in some enduring form the remembrance 
of their deeds, and inscribe their names upon the scroll 
of fame forever. So long as the usages of nations 
require the issues to be met by force and death, we 
must keep the fires of patriotism burning brightly, 
and should teach our young men the value of those 
institutions which we have received, and the great 
cost with which they have been purchased. The cus- 
tom of erecting monuments of commemoration dates 
back from the earliest period of the world's history, 
and from them we gather the fate of nations that 
have long ceased to exist. They are daily educators 
to young and old, while they ever keep before us the 
events of the period they are intended to commemo- 
rate. We meet to-day under the banners of peace. 
The implements of war have been laid aside. The 
sound of martial music calling to battle has ceased, 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 39 

and the " Soldiers of the Republic," having faithfully 
performed their mission, have again resumed their 
peaceful vocations. Our Union is preserved, and our 
country reposes in safety under the protection of the 
" Old Flag" which has so long sheltered us, and upon 
whose azure folds we have ever loved to gaze. " For- 
ever may it shine brightly as now." 

I trust I may, without seeming to you tedious, 
briefly allude to the action of our city during this 
period. It is known to most of you that Cambridge 
has the honor of having raised the first volunteer com- 
pany under the proclamation of President Lincoln, — 
dated April 15, 1861, — which, two days afterwards, 
under the command of Capt. J. P. Richardson of this 
city, marched to the seat of war, numbering ninety- 
five men. It was pure patriotism and unwavering 
loyalty that animated these men. Thus early, and 
throughout the entire period of the war, at every call 
from the President, our city was foremost to promptly 
fill all its quotas, and render every aid to the govern- 
ment ; and at the close of the war we had a surplus 
to our credit of over two hundred men. During the 
war, with us, party spirit was laid aside, and shoulder 
to shoulder our young men stood firm for loyalty and 
the Union. Let it be known for all time, that at 
every call from our city for volunteers, our appeals to 
their patriotism were always successful. They went 
forth manfully, and we now but perform a sacred duty 
in this work. 

More than four thousand men were raised and sent 
to the field from Cambridge, upwards of four-hundred 



40 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

of Avhom became martyrs to the glorious cause. It is 
to recognize and commemorate the actions of the lat- 
ter, that we build this structure, and consecrate it to 
their everlasting remembrance. Having cared for the 
living, and the war being ended, we propose to "ten- 
derly care " for the memories of those who are beyond 
any physical need. Their blood has moistened, and 
their bones lie mingled, with the soil of nearly every 
battle-field, and the place of the sepulchre of the 
larger portion of them is unknown. Their epitaph 
is not upon the sculptured stone, and their name is 
known only upon the roll of their regiment, as miss- 
ing. They represented you and me, on the march, in 
the hospital, and upon the battle-field. Who can tell 
of the pain and suff"ering endured for us, known only 
to themselves ? Absent from home and friends, with 
no fond parent to watch over them, deprived in many 
cases of the barest necessaries of life, confined in 
rebel prisons, the horrors of which no pen can por- 
tray, they suff'ered in silence, and drank the bitter cup 
for the institutions they loved, and the land whose 
glorious heritage of unity and freedom was imperilled 
by fratricidal hands. 

Can we forget all this ? Are we willing to let all 
this sink into oblivion because we still survive ] Let 
only those who have sufi"ered, make the answer. In 
view of these suff"erings, how puerile seem any efforts 
of ours to render them justice ! " The world will 
little note what we may say or do," but it can never 
forget what these martyrs of liberty have sacrificed 
for us. We are merely of to-day, and a few short 



CAMBEIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 41 

years will pass ere our places will be filled by others, 
and. we forgotten ; but their actions will live forever 
in history, whether or not recorded upon the granite 
shaft or monumental pile. It is written, " Greater 
love hath no man than this, — that a man lay down 
his life for his friends." Can we ask a higher test 
than this ? and have not these men made this greatest 
of sacrifices for those of us that remain ? For four loniij 
years the contest raged fiercely, and our gallant soldiers 
fought on to conquer or die. While suffering excru- 
ciating pain from wounds received in battle, the pains 
of hunger, cold, and starvation were unmercifully 
added, making doubly sure the victim. But through all 
these sufferings they displayed a heroism such as has 
never been excelled. They gave all that the cause could 
possibly call for, their lives ; and shall we hesitate to 
do them this justice % No ! I hail this assemblage 
before me as the best evidence that this occasion and 
object is one dear to your hearts, and that you are in 
unison with us to do this honor to the good and brave. 
Let us then build, with fraternal devotion, this monu- 
ment that shall contain, in its foundation stone, the 
names of all the soldiers sent from Cambridge, and 
shall bear in letters of living light the long roll of 
those who have passed through this trial of suffering 
and death. May we esteem it a high and holy privi- 
lege to raise this memorial of departed worth. 

" Thus strives a grateful country to display 
The mighty debt which nothing can repay." 

On this occasion, I cannot forget the signal event 
in our national history, which this day commemorates. 

6 



42 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

Ninety -four years ago, the flames of burning Charles- 
town were ascending to heaven, while our fathers 
amid the clash of arms, and under every discourage- 
ment, were engaged on yonder heights in a struggle 
that should give freedom and independence to a mighty 
nation. The result of this contest is familiar to you 
all. At the close of that day, they knew that they 
were able to cope successfully with the army of Eng- 
land. Entering upon its new career, this nation has 
startled the world by its development, and has become 
colossal in its proportions, extending from ocean to 
ocean ; and the time is possibly not far remote, when 
its northern and southern boundaries will extend from 
sea to sea. The governments of the old world have 
watched with amazement our progress and growth, 
and the events of the last few years have demonstrated 
the immense vitality and strength of our Republican 
form of government. 

Under these circumstances of prosperity, the Rebel- 
lion broke forth, and we then found, after the lapse 
of nearly a century, that the same nation which 
oppressed our fathers was indirectly aiding the leaders 
of the Rebellion to destroy the best government of the 
world, — a government of progress in every measure 
that tends to make mankind better and happier. Jus- 
tice to the fallen compels me to say, that without this 
support, given so liberally by England, the Rebellion 
must have ended shortly after its commencement. I 
envy not the nation, which could thus incur this fear- 
ful responsibility, and prolong a war, by which, more 
than three hundred thousand lives were blotted from 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 43 

existence, and which must assume the responsibiUty 
of this vast amount of misery, suffering, and death. 

May this baptism of blood be sanctified to our 
nation, and make it faithful to its high mission. As 
citizens of this great Republic, let us to-day renew 
our devotion to this government of our fathers. May 
this memorial which we are about to erect, be to each 
one of us a new pledge of our fealty and love of 
country, and the perpetuity of the Union of these 
States. Let our hearts flow with gratitude to Him 
who has preserved to us this rich inheritance. By 
this war of the RebelUon, the great moral battle of 
this century has been fought, the eff'ect of which will 
be felt by the whole brotherhood of man. 

From this experience of the past, we ought to be 
reminded that other days of peril and war may come 
to us, and that we need these memorials to incite 
others to emulate the example of those whose names 
are here to be recorded. So long as war is to be the 
final arbiter, we must award the highest honors to 
those who are the brave defenders of the soil. No 
nation can long survive that neglects to pay this hom- 
age. Its true glory is that reflected by the unselfish 
sacrifice of its sons in the hour of danger, of all that 
humanity can off"er, or manly courage perform. 

Honor, then, to all who shared these toils, both to 
the living and to the silent dead. A grateful people 
will defend your memories. Enshrined in the aff"ec- 
tions of the great and good, history will keep alive 
your deeds of valor, and you shall receive the high- 
est honors earth can bestow, making your names 
immortal. 



44 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

At this point in Mayor Saunders's Address, preparations 
were made to set the stone in position, after the box con- 
taining the documents and records had been placed in the 
cavity cut for its reception. President Henry W. Muzzey, 
of the Common Council, at the request of the Mayor, then 
read the "Brief History of Cambridge," which had been 
prepared by himself,^ together with a list of the entire con- 
tents of the box. Tliis list was engraved on a copper plate, 
and, with the documents, deposited in the corner-stone. 

CONTENTS OF THE BOX. 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, County of Middlesex, 
City of Cambridge, June 17, 1869. 

The City Couucil of Cambridge deem it proper to place among 
the records deposited in this box a brief history of Cambridge, 
and of the late civil war in the United States, together with an 
abstract of the proceedings by the mimicipal authorities for the 
erection of a monument in honor of those of her citizens Avho 
gave their lives to the defence of the Union. 

Under date of .July 4, 1631, the first mention of the " New 
Town " is found in the records of the Colony of Massachusetts 
Bay. May 2, 1638, it was oi'dered at a General Court held in 
the " New Town," that the place should thereafter be called 
" Cambridge." An act of the Legislature of Massachusetts es- 
tablishing the city of Cambridge, was passed March 17, 1846, 
and adopted by the inhabitants of Cambridge, March 30, 1846. 
The city is divided into five wards. It now ranks as the second 
city in the Commonwealth, and contains a population of not far 
from forty thousand. The valuation of estates therein is nearly 
#38,000,000. It has about six thousand voters ; fifty-five hundred 
dwellings ; thirty churches ; thirty-one public schools, taught by 
one hundred and thirty-four teachers, and attended by six thousand 
one hundred and sixty-seven pupils. 

The amount appropriated for municipal pitrposes the present 
year is $782,050. The city maintains a system of Avater works 

1 This "Brief History," by President Muzzey, is numbered 3 in the cata- 
logue of the contents of the box. 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIEES' MEMORIAL. 45 

for supplying the inhabitants with water, a fire department, an 
almshouse, and a cemetery. Other public institutions of the city 
are the Dowse Institute, which supports an annual course of public 
lectures ; the Dana Library, contaiuiug three thousand eight hun- 
dred and forty-two volumes, for the use of the inhabitants ; and 
the Sanders Temperance Fund, which sustains a missionary to 
inebriates. 

Harvard College, the oldest and chief educational institution in 
the United States, is located in Cambridge. Connected with the 
college are schools for instruction in theology, laAv, medicine, and 
science. A theological school of the Episcopal Church has also 
been recently established in Cambridge. 

In April, 18G1, a rebellion against the Government broke out 
in the vSoutliern States of the Union. The war thus inaugurated 
Avas continued, on land and sea, with great sacrifice of life and 
treasure, until May, 1865, when the rebel forces finally yielded to 
the Federal army, and peace was restored. First in defence of 
the Union were the volunteer troops of Massachusetts ; and the 
earliest militaiy organization anywhere gathered, in apprehension 
of the impending struggle, was formed in Cambridge, and com- 
manded by James P. Richardson. 

During the war, Cambridge furnished to the army of the 
United States four thousand one hundred and thirty-five men, and 
to the navy four hundred and fifty-three men. Three hundred 
and sixty-nine of these — three hundred and fifty-four in the army, 
and fifteen in the navy — died of wounds received in battle, or of 
disease contracted in the service. 

The citizens of Cambridge, sensible of the great services of 
those who went forth from their midst to battle for the Union, and 
who " proved faithful unto death," determined that an enduring 
memorial should be built to their honor. In response to this 
sentiment, the Mayor, in his Inaugural Address at the beginning 
of the year, called the attention of the City Council to the subject ; 
and, by the concurrent action of the Board of Aldermen and the 
Common Council, in the month of January, a Joint Special Com- 
mittee was raised, with authority to procure plans for a Soldiers' 
Monument, and to recommend a suitable location for the same. 
After a Report from this Committee, in the month of April, the 
following Order passed both branches of the City Council : 



46 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

" Ordered, That the Joint Special Committee on the Soldiers' Monu- 
ment be authorized to contract for the erectioii]of a Soldiers' IMonument 
on the large Common in the first ward, in accordance with the designs 
and specifications submitted by Messrs. C. & D. Cobb, — subject to such 
alterations and modifications as shall seem expedient to the Committee : 
provided, that bonds satisfactory to the Committee are given by the par- 
ties contracting for the work to secure the completion of the Monument, 
above the foundation, at a cost to the city not exceeding $25,000 ; the 
same to be charged to the Appropriation for a Soldiers' Monument. 

"Also, that the said Committee be authorized to employ a suitable 
architect to superintend the erection of the Monument, — the expense of 
the same to be charged to the Appropriation for Incidental Expenses." 

It was subsequently ordered iu concurreuce, — 

" That the City Clerk be instructed to cause a complete and accurate 
Roll of the Soldiers and Sailors who enlisted in the late war from Cam- 
bridge to be engrossed upon parchment, that it may be placed under 
the corner-stone of the Soldiers' Monument." 

Aud now, on this seventeenth day of June, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, and of the 
Independence of the United States the ninety-third, the corner- 
stone of this Monument is laid, by the city authorities of Cam- 
bridge, as a public duty, aud with the hope that gratitude and 
reverence for the patriots whose names are borne on the roll here- 
with deposited, may fill the hearts of succeeding generations of 
our people in all time to come. 

LIST OF DOCUMENTS. 

1. A list of the soldiers and sailors from Cambi-idge, who 
served in the civil war. 

2. A list of the City Government, Monument Committee, and 
the names of the designers and sculptors, architect, aud builders 
of the Monument. 

3. A brief history of Cambridge, of the civil war, and of the 
action of the city as to the Monument. 

4. Address of Hon. Charles H, Saunders, Mayor, at the laying 
of this corner-stone, June 17, 1869. 

5. Roll of members of Cambridge Posts of Grand Army of 
the Republic. 

6. Names of the President and Fellows of Harvard College. 

7. List of officers of Lodges of Freemasons in Cambridge. 
[All the foregoing were engrossed upon parchment, and enclosed 

in hermetically sealed copper tubes.] 



CAMBEIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 47 

8. Order of Exercises at laying of Corner-stone. 

9. Charter and Ordinances of the City of Cambridge. 

10. Mayor's Addi'ess and Annual Report of City Officers, 
1869. 

11. Cambridge Directory for 18G9. 

12. Copies of " Cambridge Chronicle" and " Cambridge Press" 
of June 12, 18G9, "Boston Daily Advertiser" and ''Boston Post" 
of June 17. 

lo. Catalogue of Harvard College for the present year. 



When President Muzzey had concluded the reading, upon 
the suggestion of the Chief Marshal, Gen. Chamberlain, the 
widows, children, and friends of deceased soldiers and sailors 
were invited to pass around the stone, and witness the man- 
ner in which the box of record was to be enclosed. ^ 

Upon the conclusion of this interesting incident in the cere- 
monies, the Mayor resumed his remarks : 

Having briefly alluded to the occasion that has 
brought us together, I now, in behalf of the City 
Council representing the people of Cambridge, and 
in behalf of the widows and orphans of those sacri- 
ficed in the war, and also of those soldiers and sailors, 
who, having served faithfully the Government, were 
permitted to survive the shock of battle, in behalf of 
the present and the future inhabitants of our city, I 
now proceed to lay this corner-stone. Let this struct- 
ure rise speedily, bearing upon its tablets the names 
of those who laid down their lives for the salvation of 
their country in its hour of greatest need. We build 

1 The box is made of copper, and measures eight inclies square by fifteen 
long, being securely soldered. It was placed in the southeast corner of the 
foundation, under the main structure, in a cavity cut in the granite block or 
corner-stone, two feet square by five long, and was firmly wedged and 
cemented. 



48 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

this memorial of granite, emblematic of the durability 
of our free institutions, which are based upon Liberty, 
Education, and Religion. Let the young be inspired 
daily by its sight, and recall the sacrifices made for 
their freedom. Let the middle-aged be ever reminded 
of the great cost of preserving this government, and 
of its priceless worth. Let the aged be satisfied by 
this record, that the old fire of Liberty still burns 
brightly in the hearts of the descendants of the 
fathers of the Revolution. May it serve to keep 
alive in us all, the lessons of patriotic valor, and a 
stronger love of country. May future generations 
revere the memory of those whose names it bears, and 
realize in some faint measure the magnitude of the 
struggle by which their most precious legacy of a 
free government has been preserved and bequeathed 
to their keeping. May they resolve to protect and 
defend it at all hazards, and to transmit it unimpaired 
to those who may come after them. We lay this 
corner-stone in the full faith and hope that the free- 
dom and growth of our institutions, as now exem- 
plified in our government, may continue and be 
perpetual. 

At the close of the Mayor's Address, by the aid of a pon- 
derous derrick, which was manned by comrades of the Grand 
Army of the Republic, the stone was placed in its proper 
position. The Mayor then gave three raps with a hammer 
upon the stone, and declared it " well and truly laid." 

The Reverend Chaplain offered a concluding prayer and the 
benediction. After which a national salute was fired on the 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIEKS' MEMORIAL. 49 

small Common by a detachment of members of the several 
Posts of the Grand Army of the Republic. The bells of 
the city were rung, and national airs played by the band and 
chimed upon the bells in Christ Church. This closed the 
exercises of the morning-, and the assembly retired, appar- 
ently highly satisfied with the proceedings they had wit- 
nessed . 



CEREMONIES 



DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT, 



July 13, 1870. 



DEDICATION. 



TTTEDNESDAY, July 13, 1870, was designated by the 
Committee for the dedication of the Monument. The 
most elaborate preparations were made ; nothing being 
omitted that, in their judgment, could enhance the interest 
and pleasure of the occasion. As had been ari-anged, a 
procession was formed, under the chief-marshalship of Gen- 
eral Charles F. Walcott, a Cambridge soldier, which 
was escorted by the National Lancers of Boston (the finest 
company of cavalry in the State), under the command of Cap- 
tain George E. Eichardsox, of Cambridge, a gentleman 
well known for his public-spirited and patriotic exertions 
during the war, in behalf of the soldiers and their families. 
The weather was fine, and imparted additional beauty to 
the tasteful and appropriate decorations which adorned the 
dwellings, and stores, and public buildings, on those streets 
through which the procession passed. The route was 
thronged with people, which showed the great interest in 
the occasion that pervaded the community. The plans of 
the Committee were carried out in the happiest and most 
successful manner ; all who had an allotted part seeming to 
vie with each other in the determination that " Dedication 
Day " should be a day worthy of remembrance. 

His Excellency the Governor, with his staff and many 
military and naval officers of distinction, were waited upon 



54 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

at the State House by the Committee of Arrangements, and 
accompanied in carriages to Cambridge, where, at twelve 
o'clock, they were received and welcomed by the Mayor and 
other members of the government. Immediately after, the 
cortesre moved in the following order : 



THE PROCESSION. 



Platoon of Police. 

Cfjclsca 33rass 38anti, tnauntcB. 

Chief Marshal General Charles F. Walcott. 

Aids — Gen. S. E. Chamberlain, Col. S. W. Richardson, Col. A. H. Steven.?, 

Jr., Maj. C. 0. Brigham, Maj. S. K. "Williams, Jr., Maj. J. L. 

Capelle, Capt. Richard Robins, Capt. J. Warren 

Cotton, Lieut. John Reed, Charles J. 

Mclntire. 

Company of National Lancers, Capt. George E. Richardson, 95 in number. 

ffitlmorc's Banti. 

Company C, Fifth Regiment M.V.M., Capt. R. L. B. Fox, 72 men. 

Veterans of Company F, Thirty-eighth Regiment, Capt. T. P. Rundlett, 

23 men. 
Veterans, 75 in number, commanded by Capt. George H. Taylor. 

iSrofan's 3Srtgnl!e ISanii. 
Grand Army Battalion, under command of Marshal J. W. Cotton. 
Post 30 G.A.R., Commander Robert Torrey, Jr., Ill men. 
Post 56 G.A.R., Commander James A. Munroe, 109 men. 
Post 57 G.A.R., Commander George Howard, 106 men. 
His Honor the Mayor, President of the Council, accompanied by his Excel- 
lency the Governor, and Staflf. 
Orator of the Day and Chaplain. 
Officers of the Army and Navy. 
Designers of the Monument, Architect, and Contractors. 
City Government and City Officers. 
Soldiers of 1812. 
Past and present Members of the City Government, Members of the Legis- 
lature, and Invited Guests. 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 55 

©ambriUgc 13vass 33anlr. 

Fire Department. 

Chief Engineer George B. Eaton. 

Assistants — Thomas J. Casey, J. II. Marvin, P. H. Raymond, E. F. Belcher. 

Franklin Hook and Ladder Company No. 1, Capt. Thomas Drinan. 

Hydrant Hose Company No. 4, Capt. A. Norris. 

Engine Company No. 1, Capt. John Kennear. 

Engine Company No. 2, Capt. William B. Cade. 

Engine Company No. 3, Capt. Henry Baker. 
Engine Company No. 5, Capt. Daniel O'Connell. 

THE ROUTE. 

Through Cambridge Street to Windsor Street ; tlirougli Windsor to Broad- 
way ; Broadway to Columbia ; Columbia to Main ; Main to Lee ; Lee to 
Harvard ; Harvard Street and Harvard Square to North Avenue ; North 
Avenue to Sacramento ; and countermarching to the Common through 
Waterhouse and Garden Streets. 



When the head of the column reached the Common, it 
was welcomed by a salute from the battery near by, under 
charge of Capt. F. A. Lull. A spacious tent, which had 
been pitched directly in front of the Monument, — though 
altogether inadequate to accommodate the throng, — received 
a considerable portion of those forming the procession, to- 
gether with numbers of ladies who had been furnished with 
tickets of admission. On the platform were seated his Ex- 
cellency the Governor ; his Honor the Mayor ; President 
Eliot of Harvard College ; Mayor ShurtlefF of Boston ; 
Messrs. Cyrus and Darius Cobb, designers and sculptors ; 
Joseph H. Converse, Esq., President of the Common Coun- 
cil ; the Orator, and others who were to participate in the 
exercises of the occasion, which were observed as in the fol- 
lowins: arranofement : 



5G CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 



ORDER OF EXERCISES. 



£B.nsit. 

Prayer by the Rev. Pliny Wood. 

Presentation of the Monument to the City by Aid. John S. March, in behalf 

of the Committee. 

Unveiling of the Statue. 

Acceptance of the Monument by his Honor the Mayor. 

Music. 

Oration by the Rev. Alexander McKenzie. 

National Salute and Music. 

After appropriate music, prayer was offered by the Rev- 
erend Chaplain, Pliny WooD. Alderman John S. March 
then addressed the Mayor, in behalf of the Committee, and 
formally placed the structure in charge of the City, speaking 
as follows : 

PRESENTATION ADDRESS, 
BY ALDERMAN JOHN S. MARCH. 
Mr. Mayor : 

The Committee of the City Council, charged with 
the duty of erecting a suitable memorial to those 
soldiers and sailors of Cambridge, who died in the 
war for the maintenance of the Union, having com- 
pleted their work, would now resign it into your 
hands, as the Chief Magistrate of our city ; hence- 
forth to be its custodian. 

The formal presentation which the occasion de- 
mands, has been intrusted to me by the partiality of 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 51 

my associates on the Committee ; and in carrying out 
their wishes, — a service which is at once a duty and a 
pleasure, — a brief account of their doings will serve 
as a history of the building of the structure. 

Immediately upon the close of the war of the Re- 
bellion, our people began to discuss the subject of 
commemorating those sons of Cambridge, who had 
perished in the service ; and while there appeared to 
be a general desire to go on, there was much differ- 
ence of opinion as to the most appropriate form of 
memorial, and to the mode of proceeding. There 
were those who desired that a City Hall should be 
built, in a room of which, to be provided for the pur- 
pose, the names of the soldiers should be inscribed 
on mural tablets ; others, who thought it most proper 
to set apart a lot of land in our cemetery, and there 
erect a monument ; others, wdio maintained that the 
fittest way to show our gratitude, was to provide at 
the public charge for the support and education of 
the orphans of our lost sons ; and still others who main- 
tained that the only proper course was to secure a 
conspicuous site in the heart of the city, and there 
build an edifice, that, while it would suitably com- 
memorate those whose names and services we desired 
to cherish and perpetuate, should be creditable to us 
as a work of art, and worthy of the historical char- 
acter of Cambridge. 

Amidst all this diversity of view^s, there was no 
contrariety of opinion in regard to the duty. It was 
believed that it was only necessary to inaugurate pro- 
ceedings, and all would co-operate, xlnd so it proved. 

8 



58 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

The work was undertaken by the City Government, 
and the result is before us. In 1869, the Mayor, in 
his inaugural address, urged the subject strongly upon 
the attention of the City Council ; his appeal was 
responded to, the requisite measures were adopted 
with great unanimity in both branches, and the work 
was commenced. Many plans were submitted to the 
Committee, who had the subject in charge. Aid and 
counsel were obtained from those who were believed 
to be familiar with all matters relating to art and 
architecture. Of the plans submitted — thirty-four in 
all — sixteen were rejected, because the estimate of 
cost exceeded the amount appropriated. From the 
remainder, that of the Messrs. Cyrus and Darius 
Cobb was selected as the most meritorious. This 
selection of the Committee was ratified by both 
branches of the government with one mind, as it 
were, there being but two dissentient votes in each 
body. One of those dissentients, Mr. Mayor, very 
cheerfully confesses here and now, that he misjudged ; 
that he admires the noble and beautiful proportions 
of the Monument, and its appearance justifies all that 
was originally claimed for it. Mr. T. W. Silloway, 
of Boston, was appointed architect, to prepare specifi- 
cations and supervise the construction of the work. 
After a thorough examination of various kinds of 
material fit for the purpose, it was decided to adopt 
granite from the Glen Quarry, at Mason, N.H., owned 
by Messrs. McDonald and Mann, of this city, who con- 
tracted for the stone and mason work. The contract 
for the statue and tablets was taken by the Messrs. 
Cobb, the authors of the successful design. The 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 59 

statue was modelled by them, and cut at the yard of 
McDonald and Mann, by Michael T. Dolan and 
Alexander Lyall, who were specially engaged for 
the purpose. The tablets were made under the 
general directions of the Messrs. Cobb, at the works 
of the Metallic Compression Company, in Somerville. 
On the 17th of June, — a day sacred to liberty, — 
the corner-stone was laid with appropriate ceremonies, 
among which was an address by Mayor Saunders, to 
whom too much praise cannot be awarded for the 
zeal and fidelity he has given to the enterprise from 
its origin. It was believed that the work could be 
completed during the year ; but, owing to causes 
beyond the control of the Committee, progress was 
delayed till late in the season, when it was repre- 
sented by the contractors and others, that the strength 
and durability of the structure would be increased by 
postponing further operations till the season of frost 
had passed. This was assented to, and labor was 
suspended till about the middle of April last, when it 
was resumed under the superintendence of Alderman 
James H. Sparrow.^ The city was fortunate in hav- 
ing at its disposal the services of this gentleman. 
His complete knowledge and mastery of all the 
mechanical details made those services of the highest 
value. The great amount of time he has given, and 
the skill and careful and pains-taking attention he 
has bestowed upon the particulars of construction, 
entitle him to the public thanks. 



1 Alderman Sparrow was at tlie head of a sub-committee, called the 
" Building Committee," and had entire charge of the erection of the Mon- 
ument. 



60 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

The design, as accepted by the Committee, has been 
adhered to in all its important features, with one ex- 
ception. It was the intention of the designers that 
the Arcade, or arched chamber, should be occupied 
by a representation in stone of the Altar of Liberty, 
or by a statue of a wounded soldier, in a recumbent 
position on the field of battle. Either would have 
been proper, perhaps, but both were declined. The 
first, because it did not accord with the taste of the 
Committee, and the last, because it was not thought 
desirable to perpetuate an exhibition of one of the 
repulsive features of war. As there was no impro- 
priety in allowing the Monument to remain as you 
now view it, the subject was reserved for future 
decision. We can readily see, however, that should 
the chamber be occupied, the symmetry and general 
appearance of the work would be improved. And I 
will venture the suggestion, that the Arcade could not 
be used more appropriately than by placing in it a 
bronze figure — in an attitude not unlike that of 
the statue of Dr. Bowditch at Mount Auburn — of 
Governor Andrew. 

All will allow that a representation of the great 
Governor, as he appeared in life, would not be out of 
place upon any memorial erected in honor of Massa- 
chusetts soldiers. For so it is, sir, that you cannot 
speak of Massachusetts soldiers, — their lives or 
deaths, their sacrifices or devotion, — but that the 
name of that surpassing man and magistrate comes 
first to the mind. In the catalogue of brave and 
patriotic men who gave themselves to their country 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 61 

in the days of its trial and danger, — whether serv- 
ing on sea or land, or in civil or military station, — 
history will accord no secondary or subordinate 
place to him. Through all the years of the 
great struggle he stood a pillar of strength, visible 
to all, resolute as fate, but always cheerful, and a 
fountain of hope to others. We can all recall to 
mind some dark and bitter hour of the war, when the 
clouds were thickest and blackest about us, that 
a message, a letter, or an address from the Governor, 
would reassure the public heart, inspire the Common- 
wealth to renewed exertion, and nerve every man 
afresh. True, he is embalmed in the hearts of the 
people, and the memory of him can never die ; but 
let us reproduce him here, by a " counterfeit present- 
ment," and preserve it in the most enduring form, 
as a mark of our gratitude ; presenting it to the eye 
of our children, to all generations, to teach them the 
value of his services ; to keep alive those sentiments 
which were the sjuide of his life ; and to encourao^e 
the maintenance of those principles of public policy 
which tend to secure the most enlarged freedom to all, 
without regard to nationality, or race, or condition. 

We were truly fortunate, sir, in the choice of a 
site for our Monument, The grounds about us were 
given to the town in the year 1769, to be used as a 
training field. There is a peculiar propriety in build- 
ing our Monument here. It is a most appropriate 
ornament for a place dedicated to military purposes. 
But there are stronger reasons why we regard the 
selection of this site as fortunate. We stand upon 



62 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

historic ground, and the region about us is rich with 
patriotic memories. Upon this very spot was gath- 
ered the first of those American armies, which, 
blessed by God, achieved the independence of our 
country. Here were those " hasty preparations " 
made, of which the historian tells, on the evening of 
the 16th of June, 1775, and that midnight march 
began which culminated the next day in the Battle of 
Bunker Hill, one of those momentous events which 
will influence the cause of liberty and the condition 
of the race forever. 

The scene around us is unchanged, in some of 
its essential features, by the lapse of nearly a cen- 
tury since the events of which we speak. The 
old church before us still overlooks the " common 
lands " of Cambridge, as it did a hundred years 
ago ; beneath the spreading branches of one of the 
venerable trees which form so beautiful a feature 
in the landscape, Washington assumed command 
of those forces which, after seven long years of 
struggle, with varying fortune, gave to their country 
a name and a place among the nations of the world. 
The college, too, that school of patriots as well as 
of prophets, furnished for the country's service, in the 
War of the Revolution as in the War of the Rebel- 
lion, conspicuous examples of devotion and courage. 
Warren gave himself a willing sacrifice on Bunker 
Hill in 1775 ; but not less willingly did Lowell offer 
up his life in the Shenandoah Valley, eighty-nine 
years later. They were both sons of the college ; 
and there are many more, not less worthy, whose 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 63 

blood has moistened the soil all the way from Gettys- 
burg to New Orleans. In peace or war her children 
have stood for the honor and renown of the nation — 
as have the men of Cambridge. How fit, then, is it 
that we build our Monument here. Is it not the 
peculiar glory and felicity of Cambridge that she can 
set up her memorial, in honor of sons who died in the 
War of the Rebellion, upon the identical spot where 
first encamped the soldiers of the War of the Revo- 
lution '? 

The Committee on the Soldiers' Monument, Mr. 
Mayor, having finished their work, place in your 
charge this completed structure, as the result of 
their labors. Their aim has been to construct it in 
such a manner as to defy, if possible, the ravages of 
time ; the best of material compacted by the skill 
and knowledge of our best mechanics. We have 
placed upon it the names of our dead sons — "dead 
upon the field of honor " — in letters of brass. We 
have surmounted all with a figure of the American 
soldier, — the Massachusetts volunteer, — cut in im- 
perishable stone. We surrender this memorial to 
you, sir, in the hope and belief that it will stand as 
long as liberty is dear to the hearts of our people : a 
mute but expressive witness to the valor and sacrifice 
of those sons of Cambridge, who went out never to 
return in life, — dying for their country. 

Unveil now^ the statue of our soldier : display it to 
the eyes of the world, and may the generations that 
look upon it, learn anew the great lesson of Repub- 
lican freedom, — the love of liberty, sustained and 



64 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

protected by law ; — and that the American soldier 
never combats to advance the ambitious fortunes of a 
gifted leader, but always to maintain the honor, inde- 
pendence, and freedom of his country. 

UNVEILING OF THE STATUE. 

As had been previously arranged, the Statue was now 
unveiled. It was greeted by the united applause of the 
assembly, and the roar of the artillery. 

At the conclusion of this ceremony, his Honor Mayor 
Harding spoke as follows : 



ADDRESS OF ACCEPTANCE, 

BY THE HON. HAMLIN R. HARDING, MAYOR. 

Mr. Chairman : 

In behalf of the City Council, and in the name of 
the citizens of Cambridge, I accept this Monument, 
and declare it to be henceforward the property of this 
ancient mimicipality, to be cared for and guarded as 
a sacred trust. And now that we have accepted this 
memorial of our heroic dead, who gave to their coim- 
try the last full measure of devotion, let the orphans 
of those brave men consecrate it with their floral 
offerings. 

[At this point twelve youns;' ladies dressed in white, with red, white, 
and blue sashes, — all of them daugiiters of soldiers, — came forward 
with bouquets and placed them among the decorations which previously 
adorned the Monument. During this interesting ceremony the Bands 
played the American Hymn. AVhen it was finished, the Mayor turned 
to the audience and continued his remarks.] 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 65 

Friends and Fellow Citizens, — I congratulate you 
heartily and sincerely upon the completion of a Monu- 
ment which is intended to commemorate the courage 
and constancy, the patriotism and fortitude, the "devo- 
tion unto death " of Cambridge soldiers and sailors. 
It has been our happiness and our extreme good for- 
tune to have lived in the later years, and to have 
witnessed the actual ending of one of the most re- 
markable eras in the annals of mankind. The century 
which spanned the interval between the fifth day of 
March in the year 1770, and the thirtieth day of the 
same month in the year 1870, was crowded with 
events of a wonderful and extraordinary character. 
That century began with the sound of British mus- 
ketry in the streets of Boston ; it ended with the 
electric flash that bore to us the intelligence that uni- 
versal freedom and universal suffrage were at last 
established, for all races of men, throughout the 
length and breadth of this vast Republic. In that 
century what an unparalleled progress was made in 
the recognition of the religious, civil, and political 
rights of men ; a change that seems little less than 
miraculous ; a progress in a hundred years that the 
previous thousand could not boast of. In that cen- 
tury, now just expired, were fought the battles of the 
Revolution, redeeming the better part of a continent 
from foreign domination, and overthrowing kingly 
power forever on these western shores. In that cen- 
tury transpired the astonishing series of events, which 
ended in the abolition of slavery, and the raising up 
of a down-trodden and despised race to a perfect 



66 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

equality of rights with those who hut lately claimed 
to be its owners and absolute masters ! 

These great and noble results have been won on 
the field of battle. Amid the agonies of war the 
nation achieved its independence and the freedom of 
its citizens. By war alone has man successfully 
asserted his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness. Half a million new-made graves attest 
the fierceness of our latest contest, and bring home to 
our hearts and minds the awful price at which our 
liberties have been purchased. In all these wars the 
men of Cambridge have never been found wanting. 
In 1775, in 1812, and in 1861 they were ready to 
obey their country's call. Their names may be found 
recorded among the fallen on a hundred stricken 
fields ; their souls ascended to heaven from the scene 
of many a deadly conflict, where the defenders of 
freedom have grappled with the minions of despotic 
power. 

We come here to-day to dedicate a Monument in 
honor of such men as these. Proudly we remember 
them, for, by their deeds of valor, they shed an undy- 
ing lustre on the city which they loved to call their 
home. Proudly we claim them as having been our 
brethren and fellow-citizens, for they fought and died 
in a sacred cause. Proudly we raise to their immortal 
memory this tribute of our admiration, for they de- 
fended their country in its hour of utmost peril, and 
taught us a new lesson of patriotism and courage 
and unswerving constancy. We have placed our 
memorial on this ground, where, nearly a century 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 67 

ago, Washington assumed the command of the 
American army. We have set it here, where the 
statue which stands upon its summit may, with its 
calm and thoughtful eyes, look out upon the green 
grass and the foliage of trees ; out, upon the ever- 
flowing tide of population in these streets, — a tide, 
which, we trust, will know no refluent wave ; out, 
upon yondej Academic Halls, where star-eyed Science 
sits serene, and where youth explores the exhaustless 
fields of knowledge ; out, still beyond, toward that 
far off Southern land, where so many brave and loyal 
men laid down their lives for God and Liberty ! We 
have deemed this a fitting spot whereon to erect a 
structure, which, speaking to us as this does, mutely 
but eloquently, of the recent gigantic struggle for the 
Union and the Rights of Man, — and which, springing 
in its stately and beautiful proportions from this soil 
so suggestive of the glorious memories of the Revo- 
lution, joins at once in the recollection of every 
beholder, the two great epochs in our country's his- 
tory, — that of National Independence with that of 
Universal Freedom. And here, as we fondly hope, 
will stand for many centuries this monumental pile ; 
reminding the generations which are, in due time, 
successively to occupy our places, of what may be 
'truly and fitly called the Heroic Age of America. 



At the close of the Mayor's Address, an interlude was 
performed by the Bands. The Rev. Alexander McKenzie 
then delivered the very eloquent and instructive oration 
which forms the conclusion of this publication. 



68 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

When the orator had finished, the Government, with their 
guests, proceeded to the Arsenal, on Garden Street, and 
there partook of a most excellent entertainment, provided 
by J. Milton Clarke, Esq., of the Common Council, under 
the direction of the Committee. No speeches were made at 
the table. The company passed an hour or two in a delight- 
fully social manner, and separated happy in the thought that 
a duty, inspired by the love of our country and its defenders, 
had been successfully accomplished, and tliatf nothing had 
occurred to disturb the harmony or the patriotic joy and 
pride of " Dedication Day." 



ORATION. 



THE REV. ALEXANDER McKENZIE. 



ORATION. 



Mr. Mayor ayid Gentlemen of the City Government, /Soldiers, 
Citizens : 

This is a proud day for us. It is the people's day, 
and in these doings we all have a part. The presence 
and interest of the throng gathered here are essential 
to the proper discharge of the duty of the hour. 
Grateful, loving, patriotic hearts must dedicate this 
Monument, or these official rites will be in vain. You 
need no urging. Too dear is the memory of the men 
you honor, too precious are the deeds which this time 
recalls, too close to your hearts lies this commemo- 
rative service, to make the words of man needful for 
the quickening of your spirit, or the enlisting of your 
sympathy. Here duty is lost in privilege, and thank- 
ful, chastened joy presides serene. From your homes 
and your schools, from your places of toil and the 
busy scenes of common life, while the city keeps holi- 
day, you have come to witness the fortunate comple- 
tion of a work at whose auspicious beginning you 
rejoiced. Friends, let us congratulate one another. 
It is done. It is well done. Say it to your neighbor. 



72 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

Tell it before our honored guests. Let him, under 
whose rule over the city this good work was conceived, 
exult with him under whose rule it is finished. While 
thinking of those whose praises we speak, whose deeds 
of heroic virtue we recount, we turn with one heart 
and one voice to salute the hero of the day, — Soldier 
of the Republic ! All hail ! 

We have begun this day aright. Our first thoughts 
should be of God. He has blessed us, or we had not 
been blessed. The courage which sought the good 
result, the patience which waited for it, the spirit 
which struggled for grand successes and lasting bene- 
fits, the crowning of all our toils, are of Him. " To 
Him be the glory for ever." 

The place, the day, the deed, agree together. This 
Monument bears the names of those who went out 
from us in defence of our common country, and sealed 
their devotion with their lives. We live, and they are 
gone. The fruits of their toil are ours. We enjoy 
the benefits their blood has purchased. We are grate- 
ful. We blessed them living, we cherish them dead. 
We say this in the structure which towers above us. 
It is of stone ; of stone from our New England hills : 
the fitting symbol of patriotism as solid as the rock, 
of constancy as stable as the hills. It rises in massive 
and comely form, as it should, to show forth the 
beauty and grace of character which rose to the 
sublimest heights of heroism, and was adorned with 
the culture and kindness which bestow something of 
quiet radiance on the dark scenes of war. 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORLVL. 73 

We have not reared these stones to perpetuate the 
recollection of a strife which made the whole land 
mourn. That strife is a fact in our history which 
nothing can obliterate. These men did not seek it ; 
but when the land felt the shock of fierce assault, they 
rallied for her defence. Not for conquest, not for 
triumph, not for gain, but for the integrity of the gov- 
ernment, for the maintenance of liberty, for the unity 
of the States, they perilled all, and died ; struggled, 
suffered, died. Home was as dear to them as to us, 
peace as pleasant, life as sweet. They lie to-day, some 
among their kindred, some where we have laid them 
in Southern fields, some in unknown graves. And 
we are here. Whose heart does not throb with thank- 
fulness, and beat wdth the desire to give expression 
to its grateful admiration] Private munificence has 
adorned with the costly mausoleum and the sculptured 
stone the places wdiere a few more favored than the 
rest repose. It is w^ell. Let family pride honor those 
wdio have brought glory to the name. All cannot 
have such memorials. It is fitting that the people, 
with their common treasure, should erect to this whole 
company of illustrious dead one memorial, to preserve 
the names and do honor to the deeds of those who 
have sacrificed their lives for the common advantage, 
A real advantage, for success crowned their toils, and 
the country was saved for Union and Liberty. 

The law of Athens provided that her citizens who 
fell in battle should receive the most honorable obse- 
quies, and that the public treasury should bear the 
cost. It is the natural instinct of the heart to pay 

10 



74 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

homage to those who have deserved well. The elder 
world is rich in the monumental arches and columns 
in which it has embodied its appreciation of public 
benefactors. Brief as our national life has been, such 
structures are rising over the land, and multiplying 
among us. Especially after they have gone from our 
sight, and can no more hear our voice and blessing, it 
is a comfort to us to be able to make such expression, 
however inadequate it may be, of our sense of the 
good desert of those whose memory we thus preserve, 
whose virtue we blazon before the world. Poor must 
he be who will not set a stone at his friend's grave. 
Our cities of the dead are becoming rich in memorial 
works of art. It is not that we fear we shall forget 
our friends unless we write their names in stone ; but 
that we are compelled by our own feelings to pay 
them this tribute of respect and affection. If no eye 
but our own should ever see it, we should still desire 
to mark the sacred resting place ; when we cannot 
adorn that spot, we love to place in the family en- 
closure some sign of him who has gone, and to write 
upon it, " Sacred to his memory." It is with feel- 
ings like these that the common heart is impelled 
to erect public monuments, the expression of public 
admiration. Surviving comrades may deck soldiers' 
graves with the flowers of Spring, and we will attend 
them. But upon us all rest the obligation and the 
privilege of enshrining their virtues in abiding form, 
a spectacle for men. Village and city are doing it. 
Among" the earliest we have done it here. No heroes 
have deserved better than those whom this generation 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 75 

lias known, whose deeds we commemorate. Among 
all the brave and true the men of Cambridge hold a 
distinguished place. It is just to them and to our- 
selves that we stand to-day beneath the shadow of this 
Monument, erected to the sacred memory of our own 
soldiers and sailors. Comrades of the dead, ye are 
now satisfied with the honor we give your brothers. 
Ye, whose homes have become desolate, as these names 
have been sadly spoken one by one through the weary 
years behind us, feel that a grateful city has dealt 
well by your dead. Citizens, you wdll bear to your 
homes the consciousness that you have striven to show 
your estimation of those who have made you evermore 
their debtors. Could they speak who have fled from 
us, who may be hovering invisible about us, watching 
with eager interest the service of this hour, — O 
patriots, heroes, martyrs ! tell us ye are content. 

" A people's voice attests their claim, 

With honor, honor, honor, honor to them, 
Eternal honor to their name." 

We consecrate these memorial stones upon the right 
day. It is an anniversary day with us. Five years 
ago you celebrated the return of those who were suf- 
fered to come back to you. The last regiment was at 
home again. And with pceans and plaudits, with 
public honors and personal gratulation, you received 
the earlier and the later comers, to whose hands had 
been intrusted the good name of the city, to whom 
the city gave her honest thanks, which she renews 
this day. 

In the Report of the Adjutant-General of the State 



76 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

for 1865, at the close of the history of the 38th Reg- 
iment, you may find this record : "July 13th. Paid 
off and discharged ; after which the regiment, by in- 
vitation of the City of Cambridge, marched to that 
place, and received a glorious welcome home." But 
some who had deserved as well as any heard no word 
of welcome or blessing. The word was on the peo- 
ple's lips, but their ears were heavy. Tlie voice of 
praise could not reach them, where the tireless waves 
rolled over their bier and the winds of the ocean 
chanted their requiem ; nor where summer was shroud- 
ing their resting place with her mantle of green. 
The years have gone by, few but enough, and now 
that day of blessing is renewed, and the absent are 
remembered. It should be on the same day, for to 
the living and the dead the work was one, and the 
honors we give should blend in one tribute of respect. 
But in a broader view this day is a happy one for 
this use. We are having regard to our national chro- 
nology. The opening scenes of our contest for Inde- 
pendence were on the 19tli of April; a day made 
memorable the second time, when Massachusetts men 
in the streets of Baltimore once more defended lib- 
erty and right, and gave their lives for the good cause, 
at the beginning of another war in which the victory 
was with them. The battle which committed us irre- 
trievably to the long war was on the 17th of June. 
On the 4th of July the nation was born. That has 
been the country's heroic date. These are the grand 
days of the contest which won our liberties. The war 
which has preserved our liberties followed that which 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 77 

gained them. Our day of celebration follows the 
ancient dates. The 13th of July is after the 4th. We 
are even more exact. Between the beginning of the 
war of the He volution, and the close of our own civil 
strife, is a period of ninety years, nine decades. 
The 13th of July is nine days after the 4th. Our day 
is right. We set our doings in the national annals on 
their proper line. 

The place where this Monument stands agrees well 
with the purpose which has erected it, and the day 
which ushers it upon its mission. This is historic 
ground. The very soil is rich in martial memories. 
As early as 1632 we find a tax levied for the con- 
struction of a palisado about the tow^n, for protection 
against its enemies, and that fortification ran along 
the northern side of this Common. In 1769 the Com- 
mon was granted to the town, to be used forever as a 
Training Field. It was a central point in the earlier 
part of the war of our Independence.^ Within the 
memory of some who are here to-day, this ground 
retained traces of the encampment of the Continen- 
tal Army. On this spot were gathered the troops who 
marched to fortify and defend Bunker Hill. They 
met here at evening, and after prayer by President 
Langdon, went out upon their silent march by night, 
" not knowing w^hither they w'ent," ~ and hither many 

1 Frothingham's "History of the Siege of Boston" furnishes a fine 
account of the early part of the war of Independence, and of the position of 
Cambridge at that time. For mucli local information I am glad to acknowl- 
edge my indebtedness to my friend, William A. Saunders, Esq. 

- The troops were not aware of the object of the expedition until they 
halted at Charlestown Neck. — Froth ingJiam's History, p. 122. 



78 CAMBKIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

returned when the eventful day was done. Turn 
your eyes which way you will, and they rest upon 
some spot of historic interest. Boston was early in 
the possession of British troops, and Cambridge was 
the provincial centre. Here were consultations, plan- 
ning, working. Out of Cambridge had gone, earlier 
than this, bold words which had encouraged Boston 
to resist the encroachments of British power. The 
famous tea question had excited the people here, and 
" a noble town-meeting " sent the pledge of their sym- 
pathy and assistance to the neighboring capital. In 
East Cambridge, near the place where the Court 
House stands, landed the British soldiers on their way 
to Concord. Across our northern border hurried Paul 
Revere, the leader of the Boston mechanics, on his 
midnight ride to alarm the country. Over the old 
bridge, along this wide street, passed Lord Percy with 
his reinforcements for the retreating army. Along 
this street went our men to the patriotic work of that 
immortal day. Down this street again, to the Charles- 
town road, came the harassed, hunted, defeated British 
troops, fleeing before the men of this neighborhood, 
who to their affrighted imagination seemed to drop 
from the clouds. Much of the fighting was in this 
town, which then included Menotomy, afterwards 
called West Cambridge. More men fell in Cam- 
bridge, on both sides, than in either Concord or Lex- 
ington.' 



1 " It should be tlie 'Battle of Concord, Lexington, and West Cambridge.' 
Within our town the battle raged fiercest ; more than a third of the patriots 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 79 

It was a, sad night here, when the beating of drums 
and peaUng of bells aroused the people from their 
slumbers, to give them the frightful tidings that the 
king's troops had gone out to murder the inhabitants 
of the surrounding villages. Women clustered to- 
gether in their agony, alarmed for the fate of their 
husbands and sons, hearing the distant firing, then 
looking upon the battle as it came near, sure that 
some hearts were to break, some homes to be made 
desolate. There was a bitter task given them as they 
stayed their tears to bind up the bleeding wounds, or 
to soothe the last moments of the dying. Cambridge, 
with her men working, her women weeping, has 
rarely seen a darker time than that.^ 

Down this road were brought some of our own peo- 
ple Avho had fallen, and in the hurry and confusion of 
the time were thrown into a common trench in this 
graveyard, until a happier day should come and they 
might have a better burial. Tradition ascribes to 
Gen. Warren, who had himself been within a hair's 
breadth of death, the promise that these fallen patri- 
ots should have the care which was due them. That 

who died that day fell within our limits." — Rev. Samuel Abbot Smith ; Address 
at West Cambridge, 1864. 

The following is the Report for Cambridge: Killed, — William Marcy, 
Moses Richardson, JohnHiclis, Jason Russell, Jabez Wyraan, Jason Winship. 
Wounded, — Samuel Whittemore. Missing, — Samuel Frost, Seth Russell. 

1 Through the kindness of Prof Henry Warren Torrey, I have been 
favored with the reading of letters written by the wife of Prof John Win- 
throp of Harvard College, in 1775 and 1777, to Mrs. Mercy Warren, of Ply- 
mouth, author of a History of tlie American Revolution, and other Avorks. 
These letters present a vivid picture of the state of things in Cambridge at 
the time of " The Bloody Massacre at Lexington," and otiier periods of the 
war. Copious extracts may be found in Mrs. EUet's " Women of the Amer- 
ican Revohition." 



80 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

day has been long in coming. The grave into which 
they were cast remains here unmarked. I trust it 
will not be thought alien to the purpose of this occa- 
sion, if I turn aside to ask that the administration of 
your Honor, into which falls the renown of this day, 
will take to itself the further privilege of erecting an 
appropriate stone over the place where the earlier 
patriotic dead of Cambridge have been waiting so 
long. 

Yonder is still standing the primeval elm under which 
AA^ashington, at the request of New England, speaking 
through the Adamses, assumed the command of the 
American Army, when it had become evident that the 
conflict begun in Massachusetts was to be a war of the 
continent. The soldiers were drawn up on this Com- 
mon, attended by a multitude of friends, men, women, 
and children, to whom a military spectacle was then a 
startling novelty. The storms have dealt kindly by 
the tree, and it reaches out its broad, friendly arms to 
the soldier who has risen up before it. Beyond is the 
venerable house before which travellers from all lands 
love to linger, both for its past and its present fame, 
where 

" The Father of his Country dwelt ; 
And yonder meadow, broad and damp. 
The fires of the besieging camp 
Encircled with a burning belt." 

On this side, beyond the street, is the ancient house 
in which were the Provincial Headquarters.^ Out of 

^ This is the house in which lived and died the Rev. Abiel Holmes, D.D. 
On its western door-step President Langdon stood when he ottered the prayer 
before the battle of Bunker Hill. 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 81 

this house were issued Artemas Ward's orders for the 
battle of Bunker Hill, and from its door, it is said, 
Warren went to the scene of his glory. A little fur- 
ther removed, still standing in Cambridgeport,^ were 
the headquarters of Gen. Putnam, whose frequent 
saying was, " We must hold Cambridge," and who 
did his part to hold it. 

In these old College halls the colonial Legislature 
found a refuge, when British soldiers were stationed 
in State Street, and British cannon were pointed at 
the door of the Old State House. Harvard College, 
then and always, was in sympathy with the popular 
cause. Some of its buildings were used as barracks 
for the soldiers, and officers were quartered in the 
President's house. Its students, its library and philo- 
sophical apparatus, were transferred to other towns. 
One student, who absented himself while the College 
was in exile, was refused readmission, for his frequent 
clamoring against the American Congress and the 
General Court. The first man to whom the College 
gave the degree of Doctor of Laws was George 
Washington. Sacred places were put to strange, but 
sacred, uses then. Some of our troops were quartered 
here in the old church before us, from which the win- 
dow-weights and organ-pipes were taken to be mould- 
ed into bullets for our soldiers ; and it is believed that 
the lead was dug out of the slabs which now lie 
mutilated in this old burying-ground, that it might be 
put to the same use. Later in the war, the defeated 



^ This is the fine old Inman house, at the corner of Main and Inman Streets. 

11 



82 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

army of Burgoyne, British and Hessians, came down 
the Watertown road, through Brattle Street, among 
our noted houses,^ on their way back to their homes 
beyond the sea. " They were followed," writes one 
who saw the horde of strangers, " by a line, noble-look- 
ing guard of American, brawny, victorious yeomanry." 
We stand in a memorable place, with illustrious sur- 
roundings. The very ground, the ancient trees, the 
venerable buildings, and God's acre waiting for the 
great harvest, these belong to the nation's resplendent 
annals. I question if our land can show any spot more 
rich in its associations with our national history than 
this, where we have reared a Monument to our own 
brave men. We are fortunate in being able thus to 

1 OoR Noted Hobses : On this street was the fine house of Thomas Oliver, 
the last royal Lieut. Governor, and President of the Council of Massacliusetts ; 
this is now the residence of Prof. J. R. Lowell. Also the house of Jona. Sewall, 
Esq., Attorney General of Massachusetts about 1767, and the friend of John 
Adams ; in this house Madame de Riedesel stayed during the year she spent 
in Cambridge, and of it she says, " They lodged us in one of the most beautiful 
houses of the place. . . . Never had I chanced upon such an agreeable situa- 
tion." (See her Letters, p. 139.) This is now the property of John Brewster, 
Esq. Near this was the house of Major Jolin Vassal, in which Washington 
had his headquarters for nine months, now the home of Mr. Longfellow. 
On the opposite side of tlie street was the house of Col. Henry Vassal, now 
the residence of Samuel Batclieldor, Esq. Next to the University Press 
stands the house of William Brattle, a son of the Cambridge clergyman of 
the same name, a celebrated physician, an acceptable clergyman, an able law- 
yer, and of sufficient martial talent to attain the rank of Major General of 
Militia. These early proprietors were prominent men and all loyalists at the 
time of the Revolution. (See Sabine's "American Loyalists.") Burgoyne 
while here lived in the house on Harvard Street which was designed for the 
palace of the proposed colonial bishop, and for many years occupied by the 
late Dr. Plympton. Burgoyne's officers went at once to Bradish's tavern, a 
famous house still standing, in an altered condition, on Brighton Street. His 
soldiers were quartered on Winter Hill. 

After the return of Burgoyne to England, he joined the party opposed to 
the crown, convinced tliat it was impossible for Great Britain to subdue 
America, and advocated an abandonment of the war. 



CAMBEIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 83 

link the new with the old, and to feel that the new is 
worthy of so grand a place. It is worthy. Through 
those national days in which we shall always glory, 
the whole town was full of the fervor which glowed in 
the hearts of our intrepid sires. There were loyalists 
here, and the white chimneys marked where tories 
lived ; but such persons were glad to make an early 
retreat. Their presence could not be tolerated. The 
people were bent upon liberty and would brook no 
hindrance. They felt the tyranny which oppressed 
the colonies, and shared the purpose to throw off the 
yoke. These streets were alive with marching men, 
and the stillness was broken with the roll of the 
drum, and the tones of the warning bell. A writer of 
that day ^ describes Cambridge as " covered over with 
American camps, and cut up into forts and intrench- 
ments, and all the lands, fields, orchards, laid common." 
The Cambridge lines of defence on what was then 
called Butler's Hill, now Dana Hill, seem to have 
comprised six regular forts connected by a strong 
intrenchment, and to have been the firmest bulwark of 
the American Army. The second line of defence 
crossed the College grounds.^ Other parts of the 
town had other military works. There still remain, 
though for the most part fast disappearing, signs of 
the old earth-works which watched the river and 
guarded the inland country. Fort Washington, on the 

1 Rev. William Emerson, of Concord, who gives a graphic description of 
the American camp after the arrival of Washington. — Sparks's Writings of 
George Washington, vol. iii. p. 4UL 

'^ The Appendix to Frothingham's History gives an account of the Forts 
erected around Boston during the Revolution. 



84 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

bank of the river in the Fonrth Ward, has been care- 
fully preserved by the municipal authorities, and is 
an interesting point in that part of the city. And the 
men were here, who were directing the efforts of the 
determined people in bringing their toils and sacri- 
fices to a successful issue. They were not visionary 
enthusiasts, but patriots, enlightened, persistent, de- 
voted, many of whom had seen service in the French 
wars ; they brought all they were and all they had to 
the hope of a people panting to be free ; a people who 
had borne right loyally, till endurance betokened a 
craven spirit, and then dared every thing for liberty. 
Cambridge knew this, felt this, and in her heart an- 
swered to the call with which Samuel Adams greeted 
that April day, " Oh, what a glorious morning is 
this ! " 

Still I say that we are bringing into these surround- 
ings, hard by Lexington and Bunker Hill, men who 
are worthy of the place. The spirit and the deeds 
which we commemorate are in keeping with the 
treasured past. Let them come, — Warren, Prescott, 
Putnam, Stark, Pomeroy, — Washington, — let them 
read these names, and hear the story of the men who 
bore them, and they will own them brothers. And 
when the roll of our country's heroes is called, one 
scroll shall bear the names our childhood honored, 
and these in whom our manhood glories. Do ye not 
think that this orient fronted man, on his high station, 
catches the sound of friendly tongues that speak from 
our venerated elm, and sees in his distant ken the 
friendly recognition of yonder towering shaft ? 



CAMBKIDGE SOLDIEKS' MEMORIAL. 85 

I have spoken of the temporal and local associ- 
ations of this memorial. It has other historical 
alliances which are to be greatly esteemed. This was 
a war for Liberty and Right. It belongs with its 
heroes in an illustrious succession. This is not of this 
land alone. Our fathers were born to a glorious 
inheritance. Much had been done for liberty before 
our Declaration of Independence. Five hundred years 
and more earlier than that, the barons of England 
had wrung the " Magna Charta " from the base and 
treacherous John at Runnymede. A little later the 
Commons Parliament came into being, and the 
liberties of the English people were protected and 
advanced. I cannot trace the story of those interven- 
ing centuries, to tell of contests for liberty, and of the 
champions whose names are immortal : of the Petition 
of Right, in which English liberties gained a second 
charter ; of John Hampden resisting the demands of 
tyranny ; of John Eliot, dying in slow martyrdom by 
the damp and chill of the Tower of London ; of John 
Pym, who opened the Revolution, which beyond all 
that it accomplished in itself had in it the presage of 
man's advance, and the security of his rights in years 
that were to be, — a man who " would rather suifer for 
speaking the truth, than the truth should suffer for 
want of his speaking ; " of Cromwell, whose rugged 
soul bore him to the breach when royal authority 
forgot royal duty, and assailed the rights it should 
have guarded ; of John Milton, who sung of Paradise, 
and entered into blindness defending with his pen the 
people of England ; of Sydney, the soldier, the scholar. 



86 CAMBEIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMOEIAL. 

the martyr, who laid his head upon the block prayins^ 
for '• the good old cause; " of John Hooper, who long 
before, for conscience' sake, refused the King's com- 
mand, and brought forward the cause which seventy 
years later landed our fathers on Plymouth Rock ; of 
their vohmtary exile from home and country that they 
might find liberty on a strange shore, and enlarge the 
domain of England's King and of the Kingdom of 
Heaven ; of their endurance in the cold of winter, 
with savages around them, with enemies abroad, sick, 
hungry, homeless, their own number thinning day by 
day, till half of their company were dead within three 
months, but holding to their purpose when their ship 
turned her prow homeward and left them alone with 
their courage and their faith. 

" strong hearts and true ! not one went back in the May Flower ! 
No, not one looked back who had set his hand to this ploughing." 

Those early colonial days are as full of grandeur as 
of trial. There were great men here, scholars, states- 
men, Christians ; fit to found a State and willing to 
be its foundation ; able to rear a superstructure and 
to make it solid and lustrous with their own virtue. 
Their work has stood the long testing, and remains 
to praise them. The character of John Winthrop, as 
we find it in his letters, and read it in the appreci- 
ative pages of our own historian, claims the homage 
of the world. ^ 

Something had been done for liberty before Wash- 



1 Our national history and national literature have little to boast of finer 
than the character of the First Governor of Massachusetts, as it is seen in 
Dr. Palfrey's " History of New England." 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 87 

ington and Warren, before Hancock and Adams, 
before- the men whose patriot blood hallowed the soil 
from Concord to Bnnker Hill. The story of English 
resistance and English struggles and victories was 
behind them. When liberty was again assailed and 
the rights of the people invaded, they would have 
proved false to the men whose names they bore, whose 
blood was in their veins, whose country was their 
mother land, whose costly purchase was their in- 
heritance, had they not lifted voice and hand in their 
own defence and for the generations to come. Never 
could they have read the Pilgrim and Puritan annals 
without a blush, if they had submitted to the tyranny 
which had driven their sires across the wide sea. 
Their craven hearts would have found a sermon in 
Plymouth Rock, whose text and application would 
have been their dishonor. The Boston of 1630 would 
have disowned the Boston of 1775, the Old Cam- 
bridge would have refused its name to Newtown, if 
the spirit of the heroic age had been wanting in the 
day of trial. It was not wanting. The succession 
was preserved. The shadow went not back on the 
dial which registered man's liberties. Hampden and 
Sydney, Carver and Winthrop were content. 

The men who were called to begin a republic were 
worthy of their work. The years Avent by, and the 
republic they began was brought into dire peril. 
Washington was no more. Those who wrought with 
him were dead. But their history had been added to 
that of an elder day. Should it stop there, passing 
into darkness and shame '? It was for us to answer. 



88 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

If our grand historic line was not to be broken, the 
time had come for our deeds of daring and bearing. 
No more of the heroes of the Kevokition, no more of 
the Fourth of July, no more of Plymouth Rock, and the 
grand old English names, if we cannot keep that we 
have, if we will not maintain our liberty and law with 
our best blood and our costliest treasure. Shame on 
us, if we cannot preserve that we have inherited ! 
Shame, if the country bequeathed to us, to be trans- 
mitted to remotest time, perishes in our hands ! If 
our spirit has grown so base, our heart so covetous, our 
fear of death so tyrannous, that we sit tamely by and 
see the fabric dissolve which men builded for us and 
cemented with blood and sacrifice ; if we only wring 
our nerveless hands and feel the tears run down our 
pallid cheeks when their country dies ; let confusion 
cover us, and the rank grass grow over the graves we 
have not deserved ! Ah, the record is better than this. 
With the country the spirit of its builders had de- 
scended. New men pressed into the ranks. New 
armies took the place of the old. The land rang 
again with the cry of freedom. Cambridge heard it 
and was ready for her work. The shout ran among 
these ancient trees, rolled over this martial field, was 
echoed from these houses of the olden time. Again 
soldiers hurried to and fro, and this spacious avenue 
opened for them a path from Camp Cameron to the 
front. These highways were busy with another 
generation of patriots, as lavish of life as any that had 
gone, willing to lie in the sacrifice of life or of death 
on the altar of the country which had needed and 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 89 

found SO many ready to be offered up. It is cause for 
congra.tulation to-day that we have stood in our lot, 
quitting ourselves like men, the men whom the nation 
venerates. And for this ye have fallen whose names 
we write with tears ! 

It seems but yesterday, — was it nine years ago 1 — 
that the call rolled out from the Capitol for seventy- 
five thousand volunteers to come to the defence of the 
country. The response was prompt. Cambridge 
claims the honor of sending out the first company of 
volunteers raised in the country under that first call 
of the President. The roll of the drum was heard 
along the streets, and men fell into the ranks, return- 
ing not to say farewell to those who were at home, 
and soon were on their way to the place of con- 
flict, ready for any service, grieving only that by the 
will of the government it must be brief. 

Oh, those were stirring times ! and they who were a 
part of them like to recall them now. Men met who 
never met before, age vying with youth in ardor and 
service. The work divided itself, and each could 
have his share. Some could go out to the battle, 
some could send from their own household, and toil 
for those who had gone. Gifts of money, gifts of ser- 
vice, gifts of life, mark those days. There were true 
hearts where armies clashed ; true hearts in the homes 
which gathered to themselves of the glory and the 
grief. Among many good men some stand out con- 
spicuous. I may mention one whose name the sol- 
diers themselves have associated with their own ; a 
man by birth a German, by choice an American ; a 

12 



90 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

scholar of wide f\ime, fond of his books, enjoying after 
a long and busy life " the elegant leisnre" of advanced 
years : ronsed by the cry of an imperilled country, eager 
to succor her with his own hand, ready for the toil- 
some march, foremost in every high endeavor of pat- 
riotism, weeping when the prudent counsels of men 
whom he was compelled to obey turned him aside 
from the duties of the camp and the guard, for the 
years that were upon him, still cheering others with 
his money and his words, living to see the end and 
rejoice in it. It is well that we remember " that i^ood 
gray head which all men knew," that determined face 
and resolute will, and with the names of those young . 
enough to die for the land for which he would have 
died, to join the name of Charles Beck : Doctor of 
Laws in the Schools : C'itizen soldier in our hearts. 

There are two others to be remembered in this con- 
nection, because the soldiers have thought it fitting to 
give their names to the other Posts of that charitable 
Order, whose shield hangs among the corporate seals 
upon this Monument, To this honorable use the 
name of William H. Smart was put, when the first 
Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, the thirtieth 
in the country, was established here. He was a private 
soldier in the First Regiment of the State ; yet is he 
accounted worthy of that high station by those who 
knew him best. Brave and devoted, his life as a sol- 
dier was as honorable as it was brief. He was the 
first of our Cambridge soldiers who was called to ren- 
der up his life. He fell on the first, ill-fated day at 
Bull Run. It is right that he should have double 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 91 

remembrance, here and among his associates, for no 
man knoweth of his grave. 

The other name having this two-fold remembrance 
is of the Colonel of the Thirty-ninth Regiment. He 
fell at Petersbnrg, Va., after two years of service in 
that position. His manly form has been brought back 
to his home, that the place of its repose may be watched 
with affectionate care. I am glad to be able to de- 
scribe him in the words of a brother officer: "No 
purer patriot, no more brave or faithful soldier, no 
more honorable gentleman, has Massachusetts sent to 
represent her in this struggle, and no one has been 
more conspicuous for entire devotion to duty, none 
more respected among his fellow-soldiers, than Colonel 
P. Stearns Davis." 

It is a significant fact, that the three branches of this 
organization bear the names of three men who occu- 
pied widely different stations during the war. It 
shows that merit and esteem depend not on the place, 
but on the man. Let him be scholar, officer, private, 
he who does well deserves well. It is to the credit 
of our soldiers that, in distributing their honors, they 
have recognized this principle. 

These have departed. I think you will be glad to 
recall one concerning whom we desire that he may 
long be among the living. Because the ocean is so 
wide that he cannot be here, or mingle his voice with 
those that greet this day, may I not mention him 
whose presence is needed to complete this service '? 
Once Commander-in-Chief of the forces of the Com- 
monwealth, he was more eager in the day of trial to 



92 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

stand in the ranks, and by his illumined countenance 
and impassioned utterance, by his tireless energy and 
inspiriting example, to urge on the work which en- 
listed his whole soul ; a man wise in the law he de- 
fended, full of kindness and of patriotic zeal ; devoted 
to our popular form of government, where, to repeat 
his own words as he wrote them recently in Rome, 
"• every man has a right to feel that he has something 
to do with its results." ^ 

I spoke of the earliest summons and the answer. 
Other calls found other volunteers. Figures tell but 
an imperfect story, yet figures here are worth repeating. 
Cambridge furnished for the war not far from thirty- 
six hundred men. She gave one hundred and eighty- 
five commissioned officers. These men of ours were 
scattered widely over the land, over the sea, and in 
all places acquitted themselves well. They were in all 



1 Among those who were most active in all patriotic works at home during 
our war was Ex-Governor Washburn. It seems desirable to make a record 
here of a work of patriotism and benevolence, which received the sympathy 
and co-operation of our citizens generally. This was the raising by sub- 
scription, soon after the beginning of the war, of a fund for the purpose of 
effecting insurance upon the lives of Cambridge volunteers, and providing for 
those dependent upon them. A committee, consisting of three ladies from 
each ward, visited the families of the soldiers, in order to ascertain their con- 
dition. This committee was composed as follows : For Ward I., Mrs. H. W. 
Paine, Miss Bowen, Miss Gary. Ward II., Mrs. A. Vinal, Mrs. W. W. Wel- 
lington, Miss Wheeler. Ward III., Mrs. L. Marrett, Mrs. J. R, Knight, Miss 
Mary Parmenter. Ward IV., Mrs. J. A. Willard, Mrs. S. P. Teele, Miss Mary 
Harriss. Ward V., Mrs. 0. Taylor, Mrs. L. Sage, Miss Presby. Their duties 
were faithfully discharged, and they were highly commended. 

The following gentlemen were appointed trustees of the Fund : Charles 
Beck, John C. Dodge, Thomas Dana, H. O. Houghton, George Livermore, 
S. S. Sleeper, J. Warren Merrill, J. M. S. Williams, Charles E. Norton, 
Charles W. Eliot. 

Edward Richardson was treasurer and secretary. The last meeting of the 
trustees and committee was held at the liouse of Dr. Beck, on Saturday, 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 93 

the campaigns, and served with honor under all the 
renowned leaders. They suffered in Southern prisons, 
if those places can be called prisons whose cruelties 
barbarism shall vainly strive to match. To go into 
the thick of the battle with a stout heart has not been 
found hard by men of courage ; to die for one's coun- 
try upon the field has been pronounced pleasant ; but 
to die a lingering death by torture, starved, abused, 
outraged at every point, calls for a tougher soul and a 
stronger devotion. Yet no one of these men would 
consent to take his liberty when the price was his own 
dishonor ; to preserve his life by working, or standing 
even, against the country whose son and soldier he 
was. The thrilling, painful narrative of one of our 
officers, who serves as a marshal upon this occasion, 
is a story of almost unparalleled endurance and of 
marvellous constancy.^ I think that all the battles 
and victories of the war, all its patriotism and sacrifice, 

March 17, 1866, when the venerable man, whose interest in the undertaking 
had been unwearied, appeared in good health and fine spirits. On the suc- 
ceeding Monday his worlc on earth came to an end. 

A condensed financial statement will give some idea of the good work 
accomplished by this Fund. 

Amount of subscriptions received -$43,871 68 

Received from insurance upon soldiers' lives . . . 8,500 GO 

§52,371 68 

Paid for insurance of 101 lives $15,710 56 

Paid to 245 families of soldiers 8,271 78 

Paid to soldiers and their families at the final distri- 
bution of the Fund 28,389 34 

$52,371 68 

1 See the statement made by Lieutenant John Read, to the Congressional 
Committee on the treatment of Union prisoners. 



94 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

can show no heroism greater than that which, through 
slow and cruel suffering, bore all things for the country 
which asked so much. 

Some four hundred and seventy of our men laid 
down their lives in defence of the country. The 
names of the greater part of these are inscribed upon 
our tablets. All have in our grateful esteem and re- 
membrance a monument more lasting than brass. It 
would be good to rehearse the deeds of these whose 
names are written here. Their story is told by many 
a fireside, and in many a reunion of those who went 
out with them and have come back again. Read that 
name which in rank is highest of them all. You re- 
member the man. Thirteen horses were shot under 
him. He gave his last orders in a whisper. He was 
not thirty years old when he died of his wounds. 
Sheridan said " the country could better have spared 
himself, and that there was no quality of a soldier 
which he could have wished added to Charles Russell 
Lowell." The list begins well. 

We praise the dead. The living deserve our bless- 
.ina-. There are some here who consented to all that 
has come to the absent, whose valor was identical 
with theirs. We may not divide those whom one 
purpose and endeavor united. Our sympathies must 
be wide, for the sufferers and the workers were many. 
Few but knew some toil, some loss, through the weary 
years. Yet shall we not all join in the song of res- 
ignation and triumph which one of our own poets 
has taught us out of his sore losses ? 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' IMEMORIAL. 95 

" Oh, beautiful ! my country ! ours once more ! 

Wli.at were our lives without thee ? 
What all our lives to save thee ? 
We reck not what we gave thee ; 
We will not dare to doubt thee ; 
But ask whatever else and we will dare." 

Wc praise the dead ; let us bless the living. As 
they need us, let our thankfulness give them sym- 
pathy, our open purse yield them money, our strong- 
hand help them on their way. Our duties are not 
done with the uplifting of this Monument. There are 
living men to be rewarded. We praise the dead ; 
and tliose who saw their strong staff broken and their 
beautiful rod, when they died, — the wives who w^ere 
made widows, the children who became orphans, who 
hallow this service with their presence, and deck these 
memorial stones with flowers, — these are to be our 
charge henceforth, comforted by our remembrance, 
prospered by our benefactions. It is interesting to 
remember in this connection, that when the death of 
Warren, whose wife had died before him, left his 
children altogether orphans, a grateful country, in 
part at least, adopted them as her own.^ 

This connection with our past history will be sadly 
incomplete unless we make mention of woman. The 
women of the Revolution were of the same spirit 
with the men. They shared their sacrifices, encour- 
aged them in their purposes, toiled and endured for 
liberty. "And be it known unto Britain," wrote 
Hannah Winthrop of Cambridge, a few days after 

1 Resolutions in behalf of tliese children were adopted in Congress in 1777 
and 1780, and the money was paid for several years after the war. 



96 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

the famous destruction of the " detestable weed," 
" even American daughters are poUticians and patri- 
ots, and will aid the good work with their female 
efforts." And later, " It is a satisfaction that our sons 
possess that love of Liberty which will engage them 
in the cause of their bleeding country." The daugh- 
ters are like the mothers. In this later day the hero- 
ism of our women has fully equalled that of our men. 
Mothers sent their sons to the field of peril, parting 
them from their very hearts. Wives assumed new duties 
and strange cares, that their husbands might serve in 
the distant army, and consented to be desolate. Sis- 
ters watched with tearful eyes the receding forms of 
their brothers, and smiled upon them through their 
tears. It was harder to stay than to go ; harder to 
sit down in the empty house, to walk the lonely way, 
to miss the familiar footstep, to watch for tidings 
which might come suddenly and darken the life for- 
ever ; harder to wait and watch in the quiet wearing 
on of days and nights than to live in the stirring 
camp, engage in the exciting campaign, share in the 
dash and strife of battle, inspired with hope, com- 
forted with the consciousness of fidelity, rejoicing in 
the after victory. Even to die upon the field, by the 
fatal shaft, was easier than to bear the painful sus- 
pense and the slowly crushing blows which wear out 
the life. Our women blessed the men as they left, 
guarded their interests, cheered them with home let- 
ters, sent them home comforts, served them with busy 
fingers and earnest hearts, nursed them in " the dreary 
hospital of pain," shivered in the cold they suffered, 



CAMBEIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 97 

were hungry in their fasting, weary in their marches ; 
loving the same country, prizing the same cause, 
ready for all privation, hoping for the end, the only 
ending they would have. They shared all the glad- 
ness of those who were gone, and all their grief, 
prayed for them and their success with that faith 
which prevails, hailed their return with exceeding- 
joy, cherished their memory when they were dead, 
and if it was granted them, hallowed their graves 
with admiration and affection. 

Deborah and Barak have worked and borne to- 
gether for the grand result. The man has had his 
work, the woman hers. Each has been the most use- 
ful in the place which God assigned, and with the en- 
dowments He bestowed. All that is womanly has its 
own use even in time of war ; a work, a place, as 
honorable as any man can claim, as any w^oman need 
desire. In one breath, with one tribute of respect 
and remembrance, we honor and bless them both to- 
day. Who shall part those who are so gloriously 
joined ! 

" Man is not born alone to act, or be 
The sole asserter of man's liberty ; 
But so God shares the gifts of head and heart, 
And crowns blest woman with a hero's part." 

We saw how well this Monument to our soldiers 
and sailors fits into its historic setting. Yet looking 
around us now, we can see that the place and the 
deed agree together. This structure rises among our 
homes, before our College, which gave so many of her 
sons to the good work, and now is erecting at her side 

13 



98 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

a grand memorial in honor of those who fell. It 
stands near the Arsenal of the State, where the old 
flag floats. It stands among onr schools, it is begirt 
with our churches ; it springs from this public park 
where many roads meet, that men may see it as they 
go forth to their work, and our youth as they seek a 
manly training in our University, and the children on 
their way to school, and the worshippers as they seek 
the sanctuary. As one glance takes in this monu- 
ment and the Methodist chapel, which has at last 
come to rest beside the Common, it is pleasant to 
remember that among the early English friends of the 
Colonies was John Wesley. When the laws of Eng- 
land were punishing men for daring to express sym- 
pathy with their " beloved American fellow-subjects," 
he did not hesitate to declare " these an oppressed 
people, asking for nothing more than their legal 
rights," and to express his belief that they would not 
be easily conquered.^ 

Separate stones may mark the separate resting 
places of our dead ; but one common stone should be 
their united memorial, and that should be here. It 
is fittino- that it should stand thus in the midst of our 
homes and our familiar places, for this war was of 
our liomes and for them. Tliese men went out of 
our homes ; they were not hirelings, but your sons, 
brothers, friends. This was their own country. It 
is a striking fact that, while so many of our adopted 
citizens rendered admirable service, of the one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand men whom Massachusetts sent 



^ Bancro/l's Ilistorij of the United States, vol. vii. p. 345. 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 99 

out, less than a thousand came into the country during 
the war. It is said that of the whole forces of the North 
only five per cent, were foreigners, not citizens ; and 
that nearly eighty per cent, were native born Ameri- 
cans.' These men belonged to our own homes ; they 
were sent forth with the blessings of their kindred, 
watched with tenderest affection, mourned with lasting 
sorrow, or welcomed back with unabating gladness. 

It is a wonder here and abroad that our vast armies 
have so quietly been absorbed by the nation. Men 
looked for lawlessness, and behold, obedience ! They 
said, " these soldiers will never settle down to their 
work again," but already they are busy with their 
work. It seems that they have come back as good 
men as they went away, and are faithful in peace as 
in war. Our hosts have disbanded with far more 
quiet and order than followed the release of the Army 
of the Revolution. Classic story has delighted to tell 
of Cincinnatus, who went from his plough to the field 
and back again. Our own city can show three thou- 
sand such. 

The war was for our homes also. Your fireside is 
safer and happier than it would have been had these 
men failed, your schools are better, your churches 
more secure. x\ll that makes life dear to us, the play 
of infancy, the work of manhood, the quiet of age ; 
all prosperity and joy and gain ; all has been made se- 
cure through their daring and doing, their living and 



1 Report of the Adjutant Gmeral of Massitchusetts,for 1865, p. 132. Tlie admii'- 
able article of Thomas Huglies, M.P., upon our recent war, will be read with 
pride by every loyal citizen and true friend of this country. It finds a fitting- 
place in this Report. 



100 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORLfVL. 

dying. Let the Monument confront us therefore, to 
remind us every day of those who have served us well. 

Who were the leaders where these men followed ? 
He who was at the head of our army and navy 
throughout the war, and he who was at the head of 
the soldiers of our State, were home men. If they 
belonged not by residence to our city, they belonged 
to our homes. Our President was a plain man, with 
a plain name. He needed only the common lineage, 
and no courtly titles could have adorned him. Born 
among the people, rising by his own desert till he held 
the Nation's highest office, he was in sympathy with 
all humanity, enlisted in the common interest, ten- 
derly regardful of every man's welfare, singularly 
possessed of the people's abiding confidence, permit- 
ted to be the benefactor and emancipator of a race. 
Enrolled among our good rulers, he is enshrined in 
our hearts. 

Our Governor was a home man. His heart was 
in unison with manhood in whatever form it was em- 
bodied, in whatever estate it was cast. We admire 
his prophetic vision, his burning zeal, his unabating 
hope and faith. Come closer to him. " Great deeds 
of heart were told of him," children loved him, com- 
panions trusted him, soldiers blessed him, the church 
esteemed him, the poor and friendless liked to stand 
where his shadow passed by. The lamentation was 
as sincere as it was universal, when, having died in 
the service of his country, he was borne along our 
streets. Let all the world look on the men we rever- 
enced. 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 101 

But it is not as a mere memorial that this structure 
has its value. It tells of the past, and it guards the 
future. It is the pledge of the former valor and de- 
votion. It is the minister of peace, the sign of secur- 
ity. It stands in the way of war, which is less likely 
to come that it is here. Bold must he be who can 
look upon this Monument and lift a violent hand 
against the State. This soldier is in the true posture ; 
not rushing in the deadly charge, not reposing on his 
laurels, not lying dead ; but standing at rest, after the 
battle, out of the din and carnage ; at home, yet still 
watchful, "staring right on with calm, eternal eyes ; " 
ready to stay, to go ; busy with heroic purposes, gen- 
tle enough for a friend, brave enough for a soldier. 
I saw him on one summer afternoon, and he seemed 
to be receding down the sky, falling back. I looked 
more carefully, and it was only the cloud beyond him 
which moved : he was standing in his place. The 
world may move, men may pass on, the nation advance, 
but he will stand in his place. To-night, to-morrow 
he will be there, ready for the need the time shall 
bring. 

Let the country be again imperilled ; let foreign 
foes assail, or treason rear its ugly form ; let the call 
go out for men, and he will answer who waits aloft 
for the earliest summons. When you hear it, look, 
and you shall see that stout gun rise to its place, and 
that stalworth form move onward to the front. They 
say that he is large. Aye, ten feet to the crown of 
his bared head. Should he not be large ? For under- 
neath that granite overcoat are thirty-six hundred 
men ! He is the army of Cambridge. If war comes 



102 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

again, — may it never come ! — he will divide into his 
several parts and every part shall be a man, and every 
man a hero. If ever the selfishness or recklessness 
of men, the baseness or madness of a degenerate age, 
shall make an image of gold, and silver, and brass, 
and iron, and clay, and set it against the nation's life, 
to hide the fathers' honor, to blast the children's hope, 
the king's vision shall be fulfilled, and the image shall 
be broken in pieces by a stone cut out of the moun- 
tain. 

The man should stand upon the summit of our 
work. It is his place. The emphatic word in the 
world to-day is Man. Old nations are coming slowly 
to pronounce it. Kings are getting to be smaller ; 
manhood grows of great account. Man will rule. 
Time is on his side, and Providence. Our country is 
ruled by men ; not royal blood, not sounding titles, 
but the people's choice makes the rulers. Our bat- 
tles are fought by men ; not lineage, nor name, but 
merit and courage lift men to authority. This sad 
war which has just closed has been for the universal 
liberty, for the stability of the people's government, 
the security of the people's homes. It has served 
every man ; it has given manhood to a race ; it has 
taught the world. We have been a prosperous na- 
tion ; Ave have been accounted boastful ; we have been 
warned of the fixte of Republics. The world has had 
an interest in our solution of grand governmental 
problems. We are gathering up the results : in spite 
of a long and costly war, we are still a strong and 
rich nation ; our boastings have been made good and 
a substantial basis shown for our self-glorying ; and 



CAMBRIDGE SOLDIEES' MEMORIAL. 103 

for the first time it has been demonstrated, that where 
the people are inteUigent and virtuous, a Republic is 
the strongest and happiest human government. Not 
in the cabinets of kings, in the council halls of states- 
men, in the retreats of philosophers, but on many a 
hard-fought field, in many a camp and prison, have 
the political problems of the day found their solution, 
at the hands of such men as are with us here ; of 
such as we honor with this monumental pile. Man 
has taught man. Man has uplifted man and made 
the earth resound with his name. Our destiny is to 
repeat the word till all lands hear it, till sovereigns 
acknowledge it, till the weary and struggling every- 
wliere see the dawning of a better day, and man 
glories in his birthright, and lives the master of 
the world, the heir of the ages, in the beginning 
of immortality. 

So give we this crowned Monument to its work. 
Soldiers, guard it for the sake of your dead comrades. 
The soldiers of ]Napoleon delight to hang garlands 
upon the tall column which celebrates his renown. 
You will adorn this ; not with flowers only, but with 
garlands of affection and remembrance. It is safe in 
your keeping. 

Citizens, come often and linger on this spot. Come 
in the morning, when the early sun illumines that 
watcliful face ; come at evening, when the shadows 
deepen at those tireless feet. Bring your sons and 
your daughters, to teach them lessons of bravery and 
patriotism, that they may serve the country well. If 
you are growing disheartened, if your work is heavy 
on you, if you despair for the Republic, come hither 



104 CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL. 

to breathe in courage and hope, to go out to the battle 
which ends in victory. 

Friends, quietly have these stones risen, with no 
sound of the workman's hammer, with each stone fit- 
ted to its place, adding strength and beauty to the 
whole fabric. Thus steadily, quietly, let there grow 
up within us, in the hearts of our youth, and in the 
minds of our strong men, those principles of loyalty 
and virtue which shall be the safeguard of the State, 
the glory of the people, while every man adorns him- 
self for his opportunity, and takes his place and holds 
it to the end. Then shall we be strong, with a glori- 
ous ancestry, an honorable life, an illustrious hope ; 
and possessing a wide and united land, we shall enjoy 
and transmit doAvn the course of the centuries, " One 
Country, one Constitution, one Destiny." 

And now, for the liberty of the people and the 
unity of the States ; for the permanent prosperity of 
the country ; for the hope of the world ; for man ; 
for Him through whose favor alone our designs have 
a prosperous fulfilment ; — we dedicate this Monu- 
ment to the memory of those who have given their 
lives for the country. 



Cambridge : Press of John Wilson & Son. 






014 013 387 5 







